A Call To Arms
by orogion
Summary: Strange things are about change the region of Chessenta and also the life of a young elf girl. She and her companions are dragged into a whirlwind of events through a land in chaos.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Before I start, I'd like to say that this prologue is the end of my previous journal, a journal written while venturing through the sword coast. If you expect to find great entertainment in this prologue, then I'll have to disappoint you. You might even skip it then.

While you are reading this, you should read it as it was meant, the end of a previous part of my life, the life of a simple girl who travels to see nature's miracles.

**Uktar 17 – year 1372**

In the middle of the night summoned by a treant, I found myself in an unknown place surrounded by fog that seemed to be impenetrable. Yet I am not alone, three more people have been brought to this place, all surprised. We are supposed to find a master mage scroll of Chain Contingency in the local dungeon. Although the locals are not talkative about the dungeon I have a disquieting feeling about it. This could become more dangerous than a couple of wild animals in the woodlands.

But why me? I'm no swordsman; I'm no hero that slays villains.

The party has already been roaming this dungeon for a few days without finding the scroll. But we have met some interesting creatures down here, for instance a unicorn. One of my companions, Bartron, almost got himself killed when we were ambushed by orcs. He should be more mindful in future… or he might find himself someday on the eternal hunting grounds.

Our smallest companion, Yaeri, seems to be a very resourceful person, very handy at opening locks also. She opened the chest with the scroll in it without any trouble. Now that it is found we can give it back to the tree. We are heading for the portal that will bring us back, away from this odd place, back to our own plane.

**Uktar 21 – year 1372**

Only a few hours in our plane and we have already encountered a few orcs, again. By killing them we have saved a poor man's life, I must admit I discovered a new feeling in the last days, the sweet feeling of using weapons to do justice. The man said to us that the orcs are settled in the cave in front of us. We have decided to… lets say… pay them a little visit.

After a small warm up we tumble right into the room of an ogre, swinging a huge mace as he ran towards us and knocked my half-orc companion unconscious to the ground. Heavy weapon fighting finally brought the ogre down. The cave isn't so big after further exploring; all I've got myself is a fine rope. You never know when it will come in handy.

Once outside again I know our paths will separate and each of us will go his own way. My path will be homewards, that was enough adventure. Besides, it's been a long time since I've seen the fairness of our forest. I miss the opening of the spring flowers and the early morning dawn on a spider's web. But soon I'll be home again…


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**A Dream**

One Year has past since my last adventure, I do miss the excitement of travelling. It's nice to be with my beloved sisters again but the road whispers my name. Even if I love our fair forest I want to walk where the road takes me. I want no safety, but surprise, being limitless and free. I want to see a stranger's face, shake a strange hand. Perhaps I should go north, visit the high elven cities across the Sea of Fallen Stars. But down the road I'll go, the long endless road…

**Sharing Roads**

The city Cimbar, my first stay and rest before I cross the Sea of Fallen Stars. There seems to be a huge problem with living dead, so I need to stay here till the harbour is opened again for common transport to continue my travels. People look troubled and there is a pressing gloom hanging over the city. I fear the situation is more serious then I expected when I arrived.

On many places in the city there are recruiting flyers hanging to the wall:

"**_Requested, brave HEROS, who are willing to fight evil, sign up at the dock district. He who Triumphs shall be rewarded greatly and have everlasting fame and glory!_ "**

I've had enough of the living dead, the sooner I can leave here the better. I'll let the call pass me and just pray I can leave soon.

This evening, at the Inn where I'm staying, a lady told me that a group of adventurers departed the day before I arrived. Ever since I saw that flyer I wondered why they're recruiting common would-be hero's to fight evil. But rumour goes that it's a secret mission independent from the army that is keeping the undead at bay from the cities and villages.

Early in the morning I'm roused by the sound of commotion and gathering of people. I wonder what all the noise is about…

Downstairs at the Inn I hear people saying that the army of the undead is defeated and the brain behind the assault has been killed by the four adventurers, That's great news indeed, means I'll be on my way again then.

As I make a little sight seeing tour through the city I noticed that the people are merry and in the mood for celebration, I can feel a feast coming up. Though I'm not a big fan of crowded events I do feel like staying a little longer and perhaps finding out who those adventurers are.

At the town square a stage is being erected and tables being set. Lots of people are active in helping with the building and I can't help but noticing a group of people surrounding a loud voiced person who's cleaving air with a rapier.

Amazed by the spectacle I step a bit closer into the group when I suddenly hear a small voice calling my name. To my great surprise it seems to be the Halfling Yaeri. Who would have thought I would see that little rascal again? After being introduced to esquire Tittus – the noisy man who was swinging his rapier - it seems that Yaeri, and Tittus, were part of the four brave adventurers. Surely bravery doesn't come with size. I invited Yaeri over to my residence at the Inn called "The Bright Butter Knife" so we could catch up on all kinds of stuff.

After sleep being rubbed from my eyes and being greeted by the morning sunshine I look out the window and see a lovely decorated city view. I pull my friend Yaeri out of bed and tell her to get ready.

"Come on you little lazy head, get up"

"Can't I stay a little bit longer?" Yaeri mumbles

"They have breakfast downstairs, and it smells lovely, mmmmm, come on…" and I pull Yaeris arm.

Coming downstairs, I find lots of travellers around the breakfast tables, eating and drinking and laughing.

"I've heard it's gonna be a hell of a party today" I hear a man say between eating sounds and a large burp. How disgusting is that… sigh

Anyway, there comes Yaeri down the stairs, stairs that are kind of big for my little Halfling friend.

As reader of this you should know something about this little person. Yaeri was cursed before birth. The Gods said that he or she would be an abomination. At first sight Yaeri looks very normal, but the problems start when you have to address Yaeri, whether you use him or her. That's right Yaeri is both at the same time. Is that possible? So it seems … So this leaves me in a difficult situation when talking about him or her. See? That's what I mean.

Anyway, after a good breakfast we decide to look up Tittus and the other two adventurers. We find Tittus in the Inn "The Prancing Okapi," being noisy as usual, telling stories about great adventures and heroes, this time his own adventure.

"Hi there Tittus, ready for the party?" I hear Yaeri saying.

"Oh yes, that bloody party. But why? We got our money. Why couldn't that mayor let us just go? Oh NOOOO, he has to organise a party…" Tittus mumbles sarcastic between his teeth. I glance quizzically to Yaeri and wonder if he's always like this or if it's just a bad morning mood.

"If you will excuse me, I've got some errands to do" he says as he leaves through the door.

"You go with him" I tell Yaeri "Let's meet this evening at the party, shall we?"

**A Black Arrow **

We all meet again at the evening party, lots of people showed up and a music band is already playing at the stage. I'm sitting at the table with Yaeri and Tittus. I start to wonder who those other two adventurers are since; I haven't caught a glimpse of those.

The music stops playing and a loud voice comes from behind us. It sounds very like the voice of the Mayor, a short man, full of the joy of life.

"My dear citizens, travellers, and many others. Tonight is a special night cuz tonight we're gonna celebrate, the return of the four heroes who has saved our beloved city. Correction, not only this city, but many more. We are all very thankful and the theatre committee has decided to make a play dedicated to our four heroes. I hope you'll all enjoy it and let the beer flow…"

The short man descends from the stage while the crowd explodes in loud cheering.

As the stage is being occupied by somewhat ridiculous actors doing a somewhat more ridiculous play full of the worlds most well known clichés, food and drink is being shared.

"My god, am I happy we rejected the offer to participate in the play. We would've made fools of ourselves" says Yaeri with a jolly voice.

"You were invited to participate in that play! THAT is definitely some thing I wish I'd seen" I respond and laugh.

"Yeah, picture this…" Yaeri says and jumps on the bench and continues "… I HAVE COME TO CLEANSE THIS LAND OF ALL…" an arrow passes Tittus and hits Yaeri in the shoulder, unbalancing her/him and makes him/her fall to the floor.

I jump up, draw my bow, nock an arrow on the string and search for the origin. People are starting to run in panic, Tittus shocked by the attack draws his rapier and yells in a loud voice "Everybody DOWN!"

A second arrow is loosed and cleaves the air right next to Tittus' head hitting a townsperson behind him. Now I see a tall black figure standing in the running crowd.

I do not hesitate to return fire. I hit the attacker in his arm; he throws his bow to the floor and walks in our direction.

Tittus, now seeking shelter in the moving crowd find his way to the stage. I hook and release a second arrow, the figure stumbles a moment as my arrow hits him in the leg. I can now see the figure very well as he is closing rapidly, clad in black armour with white paint on his face, making his head look more like a skull. No time to fire another arrow, so I draw my swords. Looking down to see the condition of Yaeri I find her lying under the table, not moving very much. He'll pay for this!

"Caela ie'lle !" I swing both swords in his direction when he jumps over the table. Right sword cleaving through his shoulder plates, left sword striking him in the side. He tries to slap me with his heavy gauntlet, the gauntlet hitting nothing but air, as I dodge the blow. Two sturdy men grab the attacker from behind.

"Never hit a lady!" says one of the men but gets bashed in the stomach from the black man's elbow. The other man lets go too. Seeing no other way to stop him I stab my short sword through his chest hearing bones crack, giving a last twist to the sword to make the kill final.

"Yaeri!" I cry as I crouch under the table retrieving the little body, motionless, breathless. Struck by a poisoned arrow, leaving the body cold.

"SOME BODY GET A HEALER!" I yell desperate, hands soaked in blood, spinning around looking at the chaos of people running. But no one seems to hear my call…

Finally a healer arrives but he refuses to help, considering the past of Yaeri. I bet if I could shake a large enough coin bag he would have reconsidered. Those city clerics are all the same. I walk with Yaeri in my arms to the stage where Tittus stands. By at the look on his face he's deeply grieved because he was very fond of the little one. I put the body gently down on the stage as Tittus wraps him/her in his cloak.

I wept…

**A Last Resort**

The Mayor comes and stands next to Tittus, removes his little Mayor's hat, puts his hand on his shoulder and says:

"It's not fair to see a hero go like this, and I'm sorry that the church refuses to help, but I think I can help…"

Tittus looks up surprised

"There is a tribe of Lion People, Wemix they are called" continues the Mayor, "and I think their Priestess may be able to help you, for a price that is…"

Meanwhile the other adventures joined us and saw their dead friend lying on the stage.

"Here take this scroll" says the Mayor, as he gives the scroll to Tittus, "look for the Priestess Alruaa and give her the scroll, I'll arrange transport, meet me at the city gates within 30 minutes."

So it was said, so it was done. When we arrived at the city gates the Mayor awaited us with 3 stalwart horses, one pulling a carriage. Heidegger and Wägtell – the two other guys, looking quite odd if you ask me – occupied the carriage with Yaeri's body. Tittus and I both rode a horse, leading the one pulling the wagon.

And so the company set off…

It's a day travel according to the Mayor's instructions, so after sunset the next day we arrive at the given location. Not much of a location of a tribe in my opinion, all we see are ruins of an old church or cathedral. Covered by mosses and grasses, surrounded by trees large enough to block most of the stars and moon light. We hold the horses.

"You think this is the place?" I ask Tittus who's holding a map drawn by the mayor.

"Not sure, but the map says so, we better take a look around" says Tittus face down at the map.

"We'll go look around" sound two voices from the carriage. Both Heidegger and Wägtell jump out now and start heading towards the ruins.

"I'd better stay here then" speaks Tittus with a short laugh.

"Alrighty, I'll stay here too then" I say, now descending from my horse and looking around to find some tracks of animals or other signs of life. But none can be found in this poor amount of light. It's awfully quiet for the woodland, just on occasion a wolf howl in the far distance.

"Hey, where are Heidegger and Wägtell?" I ask Tittus who seems to sit very relaxed on the back of his horse.

"Don't know, they went to take a look around" Tittus answers

"Well, I can't see them…" I reply a little bit worried, "I do think we should have a look for them… they might be in trouble"

At that moment a shout comes from the dark, "Hey, it's here, come along" I recognise the voice as Wägtell's. Tittus must have heard the shout too since he got off his horse and stood next to me.

"We better get our butts down there then" he says.

Both start walking towards the ruins and see Wägtell waving arms and pointing to an old staircase leading down into the floor.

"It's here" he shouts again, "the lion people, but they don't seem to be very happy to see us"

When we come down we see Heidegger standing there with 3 Lion Guards each pointing their spear at him. These Lion people look much like centaurs but instead of a horse body there's a Lion body beneath a human kind of torso. Very proud looking they are, the way they wield their spears. Fascinated by the way these marvellous creatures look I almost tripped over my own feet. The aura that emits from their exotically textured skin inspired feelings of respect. Truly I find it a shame that such creatures should have to live beneath the surface. Noticeable behind the 3 guards stands a female. Long hair hanging loose against her back coming from under a strange hat. A short shirt covers her upper torso and a belt is hanging at her hips, or should I say the shoulder blades of her front legs. Her very calming kitty like voice addresses us.

"May I ask what brings you to our home and territory?"

"Forgive us our rudeness" says Tittus in a humble way, "we are looking for Priestess Alruaa, for we are sent to see her…"

"That is I. But we are not very pleased with unknown visitors, especially not those who brings a Half-Orc"

"We are sent by the Mayor of Cimbar, for we have an urgent matter at hand." With this line Tittus hands over the scroll - which the Mayor had given him - to the female Wemix.

"Alright, I'll look at this scroll, but you all stay here for I still do not trust your half-orc companion."

Wägtell – our half-orc companion – acts offended by this but Tittus holds up his hand to indicate that he must not react.

"Tell me" Alruaa says after examining the scroll, "what is this urgent matter of which you speak?"

"My.. our friend…" I speak lifting a bit the little package holding Yaeri's body, "…has been hit by a poisoned arrow and died by it. The church didn't want to help, but the Mayor told us you might be able to resurrect her".

"And we're willing to pay you, of course" adds Tittus quick as lightning.

"Truly, we have no need for your money, though there might be a thing you could assist us with." Says the Priestess,

"Come in, but don't attract attention to yourself, again, people here are not so fond of strangers."

The Priestess Alruaa guides us through the underground village to her clay hut. The village seems to have ancient corridors at the centre, probably the old cellar of the formal church above. Some places have been closed with dried clay or other earth like materials. Next we pass into a cave like area, only this cave is dug and within huts are build against its wall. Alruaa tells us that this is the habitational area and also where her hut is. Right at the opposite site of the entrance of the giant hole.

"Besides people's private houses you'll find here some stores and a place to rest" Alruaa says waving her arm through the air in a presenting gesture. She leads us now to her hut. Once inside she offers a place sit and starts to speak.

"Well, now lets get down to business. There is a way you can help us and we would repay you with the resurrection of your friend."

We all nod in understanding.

"Our village is being terrorized by a group of Half-Orcs. A few weeks ago they breached our walls and started ravaging the whole place. The guards had to kill them all to stop them, unfortunately, so we never knew what they were after."

"So why haven't you sent a counter attack yet and checked out where they came from?" asks Tittus.

"That is just the point… we can't enter the hole because there seems to be some sort of ward on it preventing us from entering. We think a mage might be behind all this."

Wägtell jumps up then, "it must be a mage; I can't believe my kind would attack without any reason. We are not savages!"

"Since our friend here is a Half-Orc too he might be able to get past the ward." I say, "he can find out what the source is and perhaps solve this mystery"

"If you can stop the assaults I will gratefully resurrect your friend for you." Alruaa speaks with her soft voice, "now rest a bit. Tomorrow I'll show you the hole and its ward."

I hand over the body of Yaeri to Alruaa. She gently puts it on a table which is oddly designed but again fascinating in it's own way. We all went to sleep very fast for it had been a very long day.

**Fog And Fungus**

We wake up in the hut without the priestess' presence, but not for long. Alruaa comes in and greets us all with cups of tea and bread.

"Good morning. Had a good rest?"

Alruaa places the bread on a low table together with the tea. Still stiff from sleep, we pull our selves to the breakfast table. The bread contains a honey like flavour and feels good on the empty stomach.

"I hope you enjoy it" she says, "we Wemix like a sweet breakfast." We all nod in confirmation with the sweetness while taking big bites of the soft bread.

"Well, I will see you all in a couple hours" Alruaa says while she walks back out of the hut.

The breakfast and prepping took us less then an hour and Alruaa was very surprised to see us ready that soon. She's taking us now to the hole in the wall with the magical ward.

"Here it is, the hole from which they attacked" she makes a wide arm gesture and moves her hand towards the opening.

"As you can see, the ward prevents any of us passing" her hand makes contact with an invisible force, an invisible wall.

"We wonder if it's a ward preventing only our species to pass or everybody. But now you're here, we might find out soon."

"What are we waiting for…" Wägtell steps forward. We all watch very closely as he comes closer to the hole with its ward. His pace is hesitant and suddenly he tumbles forward almost losing his balance. He now stands underneath the arc of the hole. Clearly the ward let him through to the other side. One by one, the other 3 of us break through the ward to the other side. The hole now has become a tunnel, dug in dirt, with mud and moisture underneath our feet. I look back and see Alruaa watch with anticipation and hope for their village. Carefully we walk forward with our torches lit. The walls seem to hold some algae because they feel very slippery. As we move further we encounter a door. Rotten by fungus' it's very easily opened.

"Gimme a torch," said Titus, "lets see what is inside."

Heidegger hands over his torch and looks over Tittus' shoulder. A giant spider jumps at Tittus' neck the moment he puts his head through the door and stings him.

"Get that monster off me, help!" yells Tittus while waving the torch and trying to scorch the spider to death. But the spider dodges the torch. Angry she hisses and clings to Tittus' neck. No amount of shaking and waving will get her off, till Heidegger pokes his large sword in the back of her body. She flees back into the dark room, hiding in her webs. Tittus steps back to feel the ugly bite in his neck. Heidegger ready with the sword gazes into the darkness. Two lesser spiders comes crawling on, he manages to kill one but the second bit him in his leg. Irritated from the sting he pulverizes the spider with his boot.

"I need a doctor!" screams Tittus and runs back to the village in panic.

For a moment we all just stood there watching Tittus running through the hole, in full distress.

"Heidegger, stand over here and let me check that bite for you" I say, still amused by Tittus' clear over reaction to the bite of the spider. "Here you go, this will do…"

"Thx Neely, but I'm all right"

"Alrighty, as soon as Tittus is back we can move on." And there he came striding back, all patched up from the spider's bite.

"Hello, fellows, everything alright?"

We all looked at each other and then made a gentle nodding movement with our head.

"Good, then we can go on" and Tittus swung his rapier in a forward direction.

We encounter a staircase leading down into fog, making it hard to see where it could end up.

Chillness awaits us downstairs, unable to see the floor we move forward carefully. Heidegger bumps his foot to a strange object, now slightly rearranged by the impact. Curiosity strikes in us all for we all have the same thought, to check it out. But the fog makes it hard so we try the safe way by poking it with an arrow. Algae clings to the arrow if we pull back from the arrow.

"Anyone any idea what it could be?" Heidegger asks while showing the arrow to everybody, "It feels soft when I poke it."

"It's probably nothing, just a pile of dirt" Wägtell responds, "lets move on and do some damage!"

Something strange was in Wägtells voice, like the sound of lust for violence. As he moves on his pace is getting faster and his steps heavier. We decided to let him lead and follow his dark silhouette into the narrow corridors leading away from the staircase. He stops next to a door, even in the bad shape as she is he fails to break her in one blow. He tries again in a rage with the door's stubbornness.

"Lets see what's around that corner over there." I suggest. The corridor splits in two ways. Left leading to darkness and right leading to a door where light radiates from underneath the door.

"Hey…" speaks Tittus "…lets take right. I feel more easier with that"

"hmm, I will go listen to the door to see if something is inside" I say while moving silently to the door. The sound of a few half-orcs caught my attention. Three or four, not to mention those who could be silent. I head back to the others and bring report.

A burst of breaking wood resonates through the corridors and the hall further on. Wägtell seemed to have broken through the door. The door of the half-orcs swings open, no time to check on Wägtell. One of the half-orcs spotted us, grabs his sword and comes running towards us. I not planning on letting him getting to close. The arrow I shot penetrated his throat. Gasping and gargling he drops on the floor giving a few more spasms. His other companions must have heard the choke and comes leaping in armed and with anger. Heidegger, not having said anything yet and showing not much emotion to the situation fires an arrow in the first half-orc. He stumbles as he's hit in his leg. My second arrow is directed to the last half-orc coming our way. Lifting his great axe high I know his blow could instantly be a fatal one. A poison arrow would fit nicely on him I think. I aim my bow and release the arrow striking him in the spleen. He gives a loud cry but stumbles on forward still intended on chopping one of our heads off. Heidegger draws his sword and welcomes the first one. The second is nearing but he drops on his knees exhausted and vomits what must been his meal. He drops on his side and curls in a foetus like position, giving some spasms before blowing his final dying breath.

All our attention now suddenly was drawn at the broken door where Wägtell was at. Hearing a foul sound and seeing Wägtell on the floor. His torch lying on the moist soil illuminating the creature on top of him clawing at his armour.

"A ghoul!" I yell sending an arrow at the monstrosity. Hitting him, but not badly, I did draw his attention and away from Wägtells body. Heidegger still armed with his sword engages the monster, impaling it on his long sword, then ripping it out. What once was a ghoul is now no more.

"Neely…" Tittus, now clearly shocked by his companion lying on the floor "I hope he's not… dead?"

I haste myself towards Wägtell and check him.

"He's alive. But he's loosing a lot of blood. We need to get him to the village! His wounds are too serious for my skills."

A deep and low sound rumbles from the dark.

"Did you hear that?" I asks the others.

Heidegger looks up and nods his head.

The sound comes again, but louder this time. Tittus jumps up

"come on! Hurry! More are coming, let's get to town with Wägtell!". I ready my bow, put an arrow on the string and slowly move towards the dark corridor.

"Neely come!" Tittus yells.

"No, you two bring him to the village, I'll try to hold them off."

Another rumble comes from the door in the dark corridor.

"They are breaking through! Carry Wägtell to the village now!"

Heidegger together with Tittus lifts the heavy body on the count of three. Steady and slow they move towards the stairs.

Shrouded in shadow I await what ever may come though that door. My bow is raised.

A great bash sounds on the wooden reinforced door and the wooden barricade cracks once more. Half-orc screams come from the sealed room.

Splintered the barricade flies out of his holder. The door swings open to be jammed half way by debris on the floor.

A tall figure crash lands on his front on the floor. Just as I pulled my bowstring back a little gnome like figure jumps through the door. Panicking she presses her back to the wall across the corridor taking deep breaths. None of the two figures has seen me yet as I walk closer. A half-orc type leaps in armed with a great axe. Little time does it take for me to fire at the dark skinned shape, if it wasn't for him closing the door. I would have taken him as hostile and he would indeed have suffered my arrow. Clearly it seems he is with the 2 others, putting his weight against the door. I leave my shadowed position and walk towards them. All three of them seem to be surprised to see me in this forsaken cellar.

"You seem you could use a hand" I address them, putting my bow back at his holders.

"Yes, you can help us barricading this door again. There are over 15 hostile half-orcs out there, you don't want them to come in" the half-orc speaks poking his thumb in the air over his shoulder which was pressed against the door.

"Hmm, I think I know something that could help" and I run to the place where Wägtell had lain.

"Now where's that hammer of his" I ponder to myself. I shuffle through the wooden debris "aha, here it is"

Once back with the hammer I trust it through the metal holder that before hold the wooden bar. The half-orc and the human – who was the one who fell through the door first – are hammering some wood pieces underneath the door gap. The little blondish gnome is piling rocks and dirt.

"This will hold it for a while, come, I know I place where we could catch our breath. The room over there is most likely clear" I speak and gesture to the other end of the corridor where the door is open and the light is shining through. The room where the 3 half-orcs came from earlier.

I start running to the door, run into the room, hoping the rest would follow. I wait at the door till everybody is in and close it.

**Friendly Faces**

"Hiya! I am Pippa."

"Nice meeting you little one, I'm Neely."

"Nice meeting you too. I haven't seen many elves around here yet."

"That's right, we mostly stay hidden in our forests. We avoid the large crowded cities. You must be a gnome, right?"

"Yes I am, I love adventuring!"

"Ow is that so? I had been wondering what one such as you is doing around these parts."

"Hihi! Do you like to adventure?"

"Hmm yeah, I guess I do."

"Why are you here?"

"Hehe, aren't you a curious one, are you? Well It's a long story… but it concerns a little friend of me -"

"Little? Like me? This is exciting!"

"Well not exactly, my little friend is a Halfling and -"

I got interrupted by a knock at the door. The party is catching their breath at the room they ran into. Liflaf – the one who seem to be the half-orc – carefully goes to the door with a sword readied and opens it.

"What a tension! What an excitement! This is something to tell stories about!" are the words of the aristocratic dressed figure at the other side of the door.

"Tittus…" I spoke softly.

The man in the corner – going by the name Alonso – stretches him self from the chest he was investigating.

"Who t' hell be this … this … dressed up circus monkey?"

Tittus looks shocked by the man's comment

"If you're referring to my dressings then I can assure you it's better then those rags you're wearing… you … you pirate!"

"Aye! Pirate I am. Capt'n Alonso Ernesto Salvatore. Unfortunately a capt'n without a ship at this very moment."

"Tittus!" I address the man "How's Wägtell?"

"He's at the Wemix village, recovering…" Tittus replies "…he almost didn't make it. Heidegger decided to stay with him."

I feel a relief in me when I heard those words that Wägtell made it. However words fail me at the moment and I can only give Tittus my expression of compassion.

"Cursed!" resonates through the room "Ye bloody chest!"

Alonso throws frustrated the Masterwork Thieving Tools he borrowed from Pippa on the floor "Why won't ye go open, arrgg! Okay… half t' treasure be for t' one who can open it. T' other half, o' course, be for me, hahaha…"

"How about smashing it? Everything breaks if u smash it hard enough, hehe" Liflaf's half-orcish voice sounds.

"How about finding the key? Did anyone check those 3 dead half-orcs outside for a key?" I say shaking my head slightly.

"Hmm, good point me lass!" Alonso says and left the room to check the corpses.

A bit later he returns carrying some stuff which is most likely the equipment of those dead half-orcs

"Agh, no keys t' be found. Might as well take these fine javelins and we'll pawn some o' these other thin's."

"Lets check the other room, there is still this door here." Liflaf points at the wooden door at the back of the room.

The group moves to that one door and questions what could be on the other side.

"I think I hear snoring" Pippa whispers.

Liflaf opens the door and puts his head inside. Looks around and informs everybody of three sleeping half-orcs.

"I suggest we take their weapons and armour before they wake up and have a chance to attack us."

"That's not a bad idea Liflaf" says Pippa, "we should interrogate them afterwards and see what information we can get out of them"

"Interrogate like putting my axe on their throat? Yeah I can do that." Liflaf grins.

Liflaf enters the room, then I and Alonso follow. Liflaf, with his big and heavy feet, less silently then the rest, but none woke any of the sleeping beauties.

When all the gear was carried out we go stand next to the bed of one of the snoring half-orcs. Liflaf puts his giant hand on the mouth of the half-orc and shakes him awake. The half-orc wakes in full surprise unable to say much.

"Scream and I'll break your neck!" whispers Liflaf. He loosens his hand around the mouth of the half-orc so he could at least answer the questions which Pippa is ready to ask.

"How many others are they?"

The half-orc tries to turn his head and glimpse at the weapon rack which of course no longer hold any weapons. He shrugs to Pippa's question. Pippa presses her sickle to his throat.

"Who do you work for?"

"The goblin"

"Who's the goblin?"

"He's the one who's paying us…"

"Paying you for what?"

"For doing his biddings"

"Hmm…" thinks Pippa, "…a bunch of half-orcs working for a goblin? Most odd."

"And what might his bidding be?" she asks.

"We're assigned to guard these corridors" The orc sighs. Pippa turns her face as I step closer.

"We should tie em up and hand them over to the wemix village" I said.

"Oh come on, let me chop their head off, less trouble in that." Liflaf replies with that evil grin on his face again.

"No, you can not do that! It should be up to the wemix what their fate should be."

The one half-orc is starting to work against Liflaf's hold. Clearly he doesn't want to have either way. A fist from Liflaf is what he gets, and it knocks him out of consciousness too.

Liflaf walks the first one out while Alonso and me tie the other two who woke the moment the cords are lashed down tightly. Alonso notices one was wearing a key and snatches it from around his neck.

"Lets see if this baby fits on t' chest. Hold this one too, Liflaf" meaning the half-orc he was pushing.

That one half-orc Alonso held takes his chance on running away, or should I say jumping? Liflaf with his free hand grabs a chair and throws it to the escaping prisoner.

"Ow Yeah!" yells Liflaf when the half-orc was tripped by the chair and hits the ground hard.

Alonso tries the key, it fits and he opens the chest fast. Grabs the stuff inside and puts it in his backpack.

"We'll check in town what t' booty is" Alonso takes back his prisoner and pushes him forward.

In a single file we walk the three to the wemix village.

**Cellar Secrets**

One of the arms of the cellar was still left unexplored so we all agreed to check it as soon as we come back from town. The wemix guards placed the three half-orc into custody, we sold some parts of the loot and the other part was kept which included some gold coins, three gems and a masterwork bastard sword which is now being used by Liflaf.

"Hold on lads" Alonso says raising his hand a bit "I see somethin' layin' over thar in that corner." He points to a small pile of debris looking stuff. It is hard to distinguish due to the fog that is still hanging low to the floor. Liflaf walks over to the spot of the debris. We all draw a little closer to see what it is as Liflaf lifts the pile. It seems to be a rotten chest.

CLICK! Something snaps inside the box. Liflaf drops the chest immediately realising it was a trap. The box hits floor and splinters on impact. From underneath the wooden pieces a yellow like smoke rises fast. I dodge and jump backwards but it seems I'm the only one who reacted in time because the others are coughing and seem to have a minor irritation on their bronchial tubes. Fortunately the yellow like smoke fades fast so no real damage is done.

"Hell, it seems somethin' was overdue..." Alonso says with comical relief waving his hand through the air "A barrel full of rotten eggs wouldn't be as bad! Pfewy."

We turn left and enter the long dark corridor. Full of dust and unlike the other corridors no sign of life. The corridor merges with an empty room. All empty except for some piles of bones and three very old tapestries on each side of the room. Even with the dim light of the torch my eyes spot a dark alcove behind the tapestry on the wall across the corridor we came from.

"Hey, guys! Look over here." and I remove the old rag from it's hangings.

What first looked like an alcove now reveals itself as a dark tunnel. Square masonry, however standing about 3 feet from the floor level.

"I wonder what could be on the other side" I rather speak to myself in an audible voice than clear for all to hear.

"Put the gnome inside then we'll know soon." rumbles Liflaf's heavy voice from behind me.

"Hey!" protests Pippa "I'm not going in there by myself. It's not in a gnome's nature to crawl into dark spaces."

"No, you all crawl in badger holes, hehe"

"I'll go with you, little one" and I offer Pippa a step up.

Pippa swallows, tightens her belt and crawls up into the passage. I jump on it next, and suddenly notice the sealing is now nothing more then a few inches above my head. Pippa, carrying the torch, goes on step by step.

The passage made a soft turn and merges with another room. Pippa gives a shriek!

"Those things are moving!" she points to 3 dark shapes moving at a slow pace towards us, more like dragging themselves I would even say. Pippa drops her torch and grabs her sling. Sling a bullet at the nearest shape but hit only the ceiling.

"Zombies, more of those living dead, arg" I mumble to myself. I release an arrow, hitting one in it's chest. My arrow falls on the floor as a piece of the zombie utterly vaporised. They seem extremely dried out, I wonder how long they have been here already.

One is now within arm reach of Pippa. The little gnome grabs her sickle and wants to take a swing with it but the zombie places his bony claws into her flesh. Cloth rips as his claws are driven deep into her chest and belly. She gives a big scream and drops backwards. Liflaf leaps over her and pushes me aside and bashes the monster back with his wooden shield. I drag Pippa back to the other room where I have her wounds examined. Besides the wounds she seem to suffer from a broken rib. I tell her to take it easy now.

The sound of swordcleaving and shieldbashing is echoing through the passage.

"We got a fat one here!" Liflaf yells down the the passage. Alonso decides to go help but just as he arrives Liflaf chops a big chunk from the fat zombie and it falls motionless on the floor.

"Bleh, you could at least have saved some for me…" Alonso says and kicks one of the zombie pieces.

We all gather in the new room and find in the back some more zombie like shapes but they are hardly doing anything. One is standing there, staring into the void, and two others are lying there gaping at the ceiling. They must be already too decayed to actually do anything.

"Careful lads…" Alonso warns us.

Liflaf walks over to the one standing and gives it a little push over. Like a tower of play cards it collapses. Alonso and I finish the ones on the floor. Even defenceless as they are we want to secure they were dead and demobilised. We don't like taking risks even on the seemingly improbable.

The back wall of the room contains a rusty metal door. Though any efforts to move it prove to be in vain. It seems the door is locked or jammed. We all look around in the room and find besides the remains of the ex-walking dead only more dust and dirt. Nothing new, just like the previous room. But suddenly my eye catches a glimpse of a somewhat bizarre phenomena. The wall at my right side seems to have at a certain point some fluctuation in it, much like the turbulence air has when heated. However closer inspection proves that no heated air is present or any other object that could cause this. Just the wall with its stoniness. I decide to move my hand to the fluctuating surface. Curiosity kills the cat they say. Not this time. At the point where my hand should touch cold stone it did not but went effortlessly through it. I pull my hand back, clearly surprised by the illusion. I call the rest to me.

"Aye, this be most certainly some sort o' secret door!" Alonso looks at it from all different angles but he's not so eager to touch it.

I gather if there would be something hostile at the other side it would have attacked us by now. So I decide to take the first step into the unknown. From the other side the wall seems semi transparent. I can see as well as Pippa as Alonso as Liflaf as if no stone is present, only a filter that blurs the scene somewhat. When I tell them to come along they carefully step through the illusion like they still are not sure if it's safe to do so.

The secret passage is as wide as two persons standing next to each other and goes on a long way containing no light source or what so ever. Pippa holds the torch again, holding it in front of her so she can illuminate the path well. She walks next to my side mostly because I'd like to keep on eye on those wounds of her. I've checked it for infections and all was ok, but you never know.

The narrow passage turns a bit right and reveals two statues placed into an alcove in the wall. Or at least one. The nearest statue had completely been rendered to pieces which are spread all over the floor. The second one is more intact. Displaying a hooded monk at man-sized who holds his index finger to his lips making the expression of being silent.

"Most intriguing!" Pippa says in amazement with the statues who stand twice her size. She starts looking at them carefully.

"There must be more to it" she questions her self "two statues in a secret passage MUST have a meaning"

"Not often be secrets kept unarmed…" comes the warning voice of Alonso. He carefully inspects the broken statue as if looking for possible traps and/or hidden levers.

"These give me the creeps" says Pippa looking up at the statue.

"I think there are just two statues, nothing more, nothing less." I try reassuring Pippa. "Let me have a look at it."

I search the two statues and found nothing noticeable. Even Alonso – who has a far better eye for such things – didn't find anything remarkable. Pippa sighs and moves forwards as I'm giving her a little set at her back, still anxiously looking over her shoulder.

The secret passage goes on again for quiet some lengths. Turning right again and leading to a dead end.

"This is most odd" I say and walk ahead of the rest to the wall in the dark end. I slide my fingers over the wall and find a small trigger mechanism inside a stone niche. The wall starts sinking into a gap in the floor and another corridor reveals itself.

The others come stand behind me.

"Somehow those walls seem familiar t' me" Alonso says.

"Hmm, yes, they do…" I reply, "but then again all these walls look all the same. All dirty and old"

"Hey" Pippa says "this is the corridor we came from earlier! The one that leads to the room with the tapestries and back to the village. Remember?"

I nod.

We walk down that that corridor back to the small hall in which the staircase ends.

"I hope we won't see more of the those walking dead..." I say with a shiver in my voice. Just thinking of it makes my hair stand straight.

"Hmm I remember there was a door not far from where I found you guys." I say "I think we should check it out?"

"And run into more orcs? I dunno, lass." Alonso answers.

"Well I still have a friend to ressurect so I'm going that way. Besides there might be a big treasure out there."

"Aye, if ye put it that way..."

"And I want to find out about that goblin!" Pippa jumps excited.

I smile.

**The Goblin**

After a salvo of arrows the second part of the trap was initiated; the alarm. The device screams on top of the mechanic lungs and must have summoned half the force of this establishment.

"Fuckin' Hell!" Alonso yells still lying flat on his stomach from dodging the arrows.

"Alonso, Pippa, hurry back!" I yell back. I'm still standing at the doorway. The door we went to check in the dark corridor. That door that lead to this great hall which was wired liked a fine spun web ready to catch anything careless enough.

We wait in the cover of darkness at the piled rocks in front of the barricaded door. Four half-orcs came looking, two armed with axes, the two others with javelins.

I silently arm my bow with a poison arrow and aim at the closest half-orc. The arrow flies above the half-orcs head.

"Damn, what a waste" I think.

The half-orcs now being noticed of our presence come running in. One of the half-orc throws a javelin, and hits Alonso in the upper leg

"Argh! Cursed!" he screams "ye gonna pay for wreckin' these fine pants!"

Some sore and bruised flesh was showing through his pants but it didn't seem all too bad. He picked up the javelin and threw it back at his aggressor penetrating his armour. From behind Alonso flies an arrow, launched by Liflaf, finishing of the wounded half-orc. In the meanwhile Pippa raises her hand and points forward with her index finger. Her lips speak an arcane word and a bright flash emerges from thin air in front of the half-orcs. They blink their eyes and stagger a bit but continue running. I shoot another poison arrow at one of the javelin wielding half-orcs. He didn't take the hit well. One of the half-orcs with the axe throws him self on our pirate friend, knocking him back. Alonso tries to keep his balance but had to be embraced by Liflaf or fall on the floor. Pippa's lips again speak a strange word, the orc that blew Alonso back seems to stand there a moment looking dazzled. This gave me the time to switch my bow for my two swords. Meanwhile the poisoned orc falls flat on his back and hits the ground hard. Makes some spasms and remains motionless. I leap at the dazzled half-orc and thrust both my swords in his body. He collapses to his knees and gives a loud moan. The last half-orc jumps over his friend's dead body taking a swing with his axe. I try to dodge but I have to take the blow. The axe comes hard slashing my leathers low at my body and maiming my leg on its way down. Muscle tissue tears in my right upper leg. All my gear is slowly starting to feel heavier and heavier. I slowly collapse under the weight of it watching how the half-orc raises his axe for the finishing blow. Pippa screams! She runs to the half-orc with her sickle, in full rage, she as good as literally rips his guts out.

"UNDER KURV!" the half-orc releases a terrible cry. Looking at our little gnome and then to his stomach. He drops his axe and presses his stomach in panic trying to close the gaping wound. But the lethal damage had been done. Bleeding like a stuck pig he falls upon his friend. His dark blood colours the floor underneath them.

"Neely, are you okay?" Pippa comes bending over me full of concern.

"Hey… little one" I try to smile "I wouldn't want to be your enemy."

"I might be little but I should not be underestimated!"

"Very true… very true?"

I'm sitting with my back against the cold wall. I grab for my bag and fish for a little flask. Pain is surging through my leg with tides of agony. I find the small flask somewhere between all the rest and grab it. Once out I remove the bottle stop and drip a few drops of the light bluish fluid inside in the wound. It stings at first then to be followed by itching. The bleeding has stopped immediately and the wound fills itself with a transparent substance, closing the wound as if new transparent skin was covering it.

Alonso now helps me a hand when I try to get up again. I do still feel pain, but bearable like reminding me of it not to do anything foolish. He hands me my swords and I put them away carefully.

"Thank you" I say to him.

"Most welcome, me lass"

We enter the hall again, the one with the trap that had set of earlier. To our left is a door, a newly constructed wooden door reinforced with metal. It even has a build-in lock and locked it is. We carefully walk on to the centre. There is a large sword painted over there in an even larger circle. The walls contain many … like statues each of them supporting the roof of the hall.

"Has anyone checked if that sword could be pointing to something in particular?" Liflaf addresses the group.

We shrug at Liflaf's question.

"I think it doesn't do anything" Alonso says.

"but what if…" Pippa starts.

"Don't get Pippa started" Alonso presses on, looking at Liflaf.

"Okay okay" Liflaf shrugs back and starts walking further together with Alonso. Pippa looks at me with that semi troubled semi curious 'what-if' look which she now and then wears. I begin to walk forward following the rest and invite Pippa to walk at my side.

At the back of the halls begins a well illuminated corridor which after a few paces splits in two ways. The right side merges with a small room which doesn't hold anything but a staircase leading down. The left side leads to another room.

"Let me go check what's inside" I say and I move silently towards the corner and peak inside. A goblin is sitting at a desk with his back towards me. He seems to be writing something in a book. I signal the rest to come but I press on being silent. Liflaf comes in the room with his noisy self and his great axe.

"Knock! knock!" he rumbles.

The goblin jumps up in surprise! He grabs his mace and comes storming towards us. I fire a warning shot close to him but he does not stop his charge. Instead he swings his mace at me but I jump back dodging the blow easily. He doesn't seem to be a high skilled fighter, more like a rookie trying to look more dangerous with that mace. I didn't think he had the time to realise he missed since Liflaf swung his axe and decapitated him in a single blow. Just as Pippa came running in.

"Noo!" she screams "Why! Damn it! What is it with you and chopping off heads! Argh"

Pippa clearly seems angry with it.

"Now we'll never know who he works for and what his orders were!" she continues. Alonso comes checking the scene and all the rattle.

"Aye, pity, and I had liked t' know if thar was a big treasure here."

With Pippa's reaction I'm starting to feel a bit guilty, guilty perhaps for not straying Liflaf's hands. Like that would be possible, but I could at least not have fired that one shot. Or perhaps just disarm myself? It might not have provoked things. Or was it inevitable? I really feel uneasy now, and I wish I could express it somehow. Already too much blood is getting spilled.

Pippa checks the desk for anything that could contain any information about "the job" and who is giving it. She picks up the book the goblin was writing in.

"Good thing I can speak Goblin." she says sharp, looking with one eye to Liflaf, "Lets hope I can find some information in this book before Liflaf decides to chop it to pieces!"

According to Pippa it seems to be some sort of diary or journal in which the goblin wrote his objectives and accomplishments. The journal speaks of "him" as the one giving the assignments but no names. Neither is there presence of any clear description why the band of half-orcs are to be guarding these old corridors or why they had to attack the Wemix village. Just some do's and dones.

"I'll take the journal with me" I say to Pippa, "the Priestess Alruaa might want to look into this or something".

"Okay" Pippa replies, and hands over the book.

Alonso is checking some closets for goodies.

"Ey lads, check this out!" Alonso takes from the closet nine small glass tubes with nine different colours of substance in it.

"Oh! Looks like paint!" Pippa runs over to Alonso, "can I see it?"

"Sure, me little lass!" and juggles them all in Pippa's direction. Pippa grabbles fast to not drop any of the tubes on the floor and studies them carefully.

"I wonder what it would do." Pippa says "Do you think it's some magical paint?"

"I wouldn't know" I say to Pippa "Why don't you try it?"

"I'll try it later" and she puts the nine tubes in her backpack.

"Argh… no treasure here either." Alonso mumbles when having checked the last spot of the room. We all gather and decide to move on.

"Hiya friends!" sounds an all too familiar voice "what's new?"

Tittus suddenly stands there, clearly hoping to get a share in what ever we would have found.

"Well… hello there… Tittus" I greet him "Honest I didn't expect you back…"

"Hey, you all need a qualified leader, don't you" he says in wide gestures. We all stare at him in just plain astonishment.

"How can one have such an ego" I wonder to myself. Tittus walks towards the dead goblin's body.

"This might be handy…" he says and picks up a key holder with several keys on it from the goblins belt.

"Hey, one of those keys might fit on the lock of that other door." I say with surprise. "Lets go check it." And we go back to the reinforced door in that previous hall.

"Make way! Make way!" Tittus commands and steps to the door, "Key holder coming through." He tries to fit all the keys in the look and finds one that fits very well. Well enough to unlock the door. We can all hear the lock mechanics flip at the twisting of the key. But something bigger starts to slide now, and rasp against stone. The sound of moving stone fills the silence of the hall, coming from somewhere above the door.

"Look out Tittus!" I yell the moment a part of the sealing above the door drops down. Tittus tries to look for cover but was too slow in reaction. He could just in time raise his arms to protect his head as the flat stone hit him. The stone tumbles further and hits the floor leaving Tittus with bruised arms and hands and a slight dizziness in the head.

"Friends…" he says as he turns towards us, "I think … I … I think I need to sit down for a while"

Tittus walks a bit further and leans to the wall looking a bit pale in the face.

"Tittus, perhaps you should go to the village and have yourself checked." I advise him.

"No, thank you, I'm okay… I'll just stay here for a moment"

I open the wooden door very carefully, ready to dodge any more traps that might set of. But all was quiet. I step inside…

"INTRUDER!"

I jump up almost having a heart attack.

"INTRUDER!" it sounds again.

There is a full metal armour like thing floating in the air, very ghost like, but not undead by my knowledge. I run back outside…

"INTRUDER!" once more the armour resonates from the room.

"There's something in there" I tell the others. We all had readied our weapons waiting for it to come outside and smack it on the head, or should I say helm. But the thing didn't follow… it went quiet again and stayed in the room.

"Lets me see what it is!" and this time Liflaf enters the room.

"INTRUDER!" the thing screams again.

I follow Liflaf, back inside with my senses on sharp for any aggressive movement from the thing. Yet it remains stationed as some dull piece of furniture would. Still screaming the same word over and over.

"Lets poke it hard! With a stick!" Liflaf's smartest half of his brain clearly took control again.

"I think it doesn't do anything more than just … that." I say. Pippa now enters the room.

"INTRUDER!"

"Well yes, I am…" Pippa laughs and walks further taunting the thing. Yet it does nothing.

"What are you?" she asks the thing.

"INTRUDER!"

"Ow really? That's interesting."

"INTRUDER!"

"But unfortunately I can't stay to chat right now, if you will excuse me" Pippa bows and giggles at the stupidity of the thing.

"INTRUDER!" it says once more.

We're all in the room now, searching the place for goodies or important stuff and completely ignoring the thing. The room seems rather to be a storage room for maintenance stuff than a room used to keep valuable things.

"Lets get movin', thar ain't anythin' here but that stupid thin' over thar" Alonso says.

We all leave the room.

"Bye Mister Broken Thing." Pippa waves goodbye to it.

"INTRUDER!"

**Carlson's Box**

We were near the room with the stairs leading down as we see three half-orc guards coming around the corner.

"Hey! You don't belong here!" grunts one of them.

Liflaf and Alonso jump in on them and make short work of them.

"Guys...?" Pippa slaps her forhead and rolls her eyes.

"Dead men tell no tales." Alonso smiles at her and puts his swords back in their sheds. He checks the dead half-orcs just before we leave down the stairs but finds nothing. I can see him roll his eyes. We walk down.

The stairs give out in a wide corridor. The left side immediately merges with a large room holding all banks and tables. The right side leads on to a caved in end and also splitting right again just before the dead end.

We all choose to turn left, all but Alonso. We enter the large room which seems most likely as a dining hall. The room feels quiet warm. Torches on the wall illuminate the walls and it's tapestries. Unlike the floor above. The tapestries are blood red and display a black painted orc fist on it. The benches are all dark wood same as the tables holding some dirty metal plates, mugs and empty bottles. There is no one in the room, except for this half-orc sleeping with his head on the table at the furthest side of the room. He seem to be in a very deep sleep for he doesn't wake with our presence.

"Good chance he drank himself knock out." I tell the rest.

"Then he won't feel a thing when I chop his head of!" Liflaf's brutal approach seems to get the upper hand quiet most of time, to put it softly.

"Liflaf, there will be no chopping heads of. He too should be handed over to the Wemix."

Liflaf grumbles at my decision and walks on to the room sharing a wall with the dinning hall. Pippa and I are left alone. Pippa sits down for a moment on a bench across the table with the drunken half-orc. I'm walking over and squat down in front of her.

"Hey…" I address her, "how's your wound?"

Pippa brings her hand to her ribs and belly and tries to suppress any expression of pain.

"It's going… okay, I think"

I throw a quizzical look at her.

"You don't have to act so tough before me" I smile "you're not a half-orc."

"Psstt lads" a voice comes from behind me, and with a familiar accent.

Alonso stands near the corner of the dining hall waving hands like signalling us. He points to the corridor behind him, the one with the stairs.

"Guards…" he tries to yell and whisper at the same time. And making very odd gestures now. I draw my bow and go stand next to him. Pippa getting nervous runs into the room Liflaf went into and comes out with him only a second after. We slowly walk on to the point where the corridor split to the right.

"Over there" Alonso speaks almost mute poking his thumb in the air.

Liflaf walks on towards the caved in end. Alonso quickly follows him and takes a look at the boulders and debris. I slowly move away from the corner to the centre of the merging corridors. I'm facing the other corridor which has a double wooden door at the end. Guarded by an obscure looking human and a robed gnome. The human puts on a grin and is toying with a dagger. His eyes are scanning me from head to toe. Seeing him watching me like that makes me feel disgusted.

"Neely!" Pippa whispers to me now she came stand next to me, "a gnome!"

"Yes, I see, but I doubt he has good intentions."

Pippa looks amazed to see one of her kind yet hurt by the fact he's on the bad guy's side.

"We're not gonna kill him, are we?"

I look with a depressed face to her and answer her with silence.

Alonso and Liflaf come stand next to us too. We all four look at the two guards. Liflaf tries to intimidate them by clenching his sword and stare them right in the eye. But both the human and gnome stood their ground each at a door hinge. Liflaf gives up, he decides to move towards them.

"Let us through!" he demands the guards.

"haha, and do you have an invitation?" the human laughs at our half-orc friend. The little wizard like gnome chuckles at his companions response.

However Liflaf did not take that well. He walks on to the door and kicks it open. Both doors swing open and hit the side walls loudly. The human jabs his dagger in Liflaf's back making Liflaf roar a raging cry. He swings his sword towards the human but the human dodge it easily. The gnome mage throws back his cape freeing his hands and starts speaking arcane words. Liflaf does not leave him a chance on finishing his last word. He bashes the gnome in the face with his shield, turns and slashes him diagonally.

"Noooooo!" cries Pippa and watches the gnome guard drop dead on the floor.

"I won't go that easy, chap!" says the human guard full with anger! And grabs his short sword shed at his belt.

Like lightning I arm my bow with an arrow and fires it at the human before he could finish his action. The arrow penetrates his hand and nails it to his torso. He curses loud but meets his end as soon as Liflaf cleaves his sword through his body. He falls back to the wall and tries to hold on to it but slides down leaving a red trail of blood.

Pippa stands petrified, gaping at the dead gnome as if the spell did had it effect.

"Hey little one…" I hold her at her shoulders, "…we can not forget he was not doing it for the cause of good."

Pippa looks at me with her wide pink gnome eyes.

"It's a lot easier to shoot a walking corps." I continue, "A lot easier then a person. And I far from agree with Liflaf's way of handling things. You see, Pippa, not everybody sees moral in the things they do, yet alone see other options then killing. I fear your half-orc friends might be such one."

"But he was a gnome… like me." her voice falters, and she turns away.

Closing my eyes I can feel her pain, her disbelieve in any evil intention of the gnome. I try to forget or deny these events, I know I want my friend back alive and I know what I have to do.

"Anyone want this short bow? Neely, how about you?"

On hearing my name I wake from my thoughts and notice Alonso is looting the bodies of the two dead guards.

"Nah I'm fine with the one I have" I reply to Alonso.

"I think it's magical, it has a set of runes on it…"

"No thank you…"

"Okay, I take you don't want these rings either? This one has t' initials G.B. on it."

I shake my head.

Alonso fishes two scrolls out of the dead gnome's pocket.

"Avast! This be somethin' for me dear Pippa!"

He looks up and sees our sad gnome standing silently. With his hand extended containing the scrolls he walks towards her.

"Here lassie, they do ye more good then me."

I walk on to see what's ahead behind the doors. Liflaf is already ahead further down the corridor clearly waiting for us with impatience. The hallway has another double wooden door at the end and just before that it makes a turn to the left.

As soon as I reach the point where Liflaf stands I check if Alonso and Pippa are following. They were and a moment later we all together turn left. It immediately opens into a room. The room, as well as the hallway we're standing in, is very rich fully decorated with newly placed stuff. But then a very misplaced thing caught our eye.

The sight to see an infant orc sitting there in the corner on a blanket amazes us all. The little toddler isn't much more then 1 years old, dark of skin and with big black eyes.  
And is looking sad and disorientated by seeing us four enter the room. The room hasn't much in it but a small bed, a closet and a chest. We walk past the infant and open a door that leads to a room that most likely is a prison because of the grids and door that separates the room in half. That room on his turn leads to another room on it's east side, a room that is utterly empty. Though a ray of light did catch our attention. The light is cast from a crack in the wall and has a warm hue. One by one we take a peak through it but sight was limited. Two dogs are sitting at the door and a dark robed mage figure seems to be talking to someone off screen. The mage was bald on the cranium but thin black hair on the edge of greying hangs from the side of his skull.

"We could use the crack as fire hole!" Pippa jumps up.

"I would have a very limited range through this" I say, "I don't think I'll hit much."

"Though I still think we should use this spot to our advantage" Pippa insists.

"Yes, but there is no use to it when they're all out of sight.

"Hmmm" Pippa ponders

"Besides, there is this second person and – "

"Hey..." Pippa interrupts, "Liflaf? Alonso?"

We both notice that the duo is gone. The same moment we hear two doors swing open in the room sharing the wall with the crack. I jump up peer through to the crack to see what's going on.

"Noo!" I yell as soon as I see Liflaf raise his sword above one of the dogs.

"Don't kill the dogs!" I start running towards that door where our half-orc just had burst through. Running through the prison room, past the toddler, I come too late to see the first dog lie dead

"Now I've had enough of this brute!" I hear myself think.

Liflaf and Alonso are working their way now through 3 muddy heaps of molten flesh. Hideous pink and red and white like a butchered cow turned inside out. All three slam their lobes of flesh towards our half-orc and our friend the pirate.

"Hahahaha" the mage laughs madly as he sees his three

summoned abominations are terminated and vaporise like dust for the wind. His eyes are marked with extravasations of blood.

"you can't kill me! My master promised me eternal life!"

He moves to the right wall of the room where he unshed his sword and readies himself like a boxer in the arena. Both Liflaf and Alonso jump in on him in full thrust with weapons forwarded. I run to the upper wall and take an aim at the wizard who's fending off the incoming blows. I pull the string of my longbow back making sure of my target and let loose. The arrows speeds itself towards the villain but is stopped midair a few inches away from his face and falls down on the floor.

"Hmm…" I think to myself, "he must have cast some protection from projectiles." And I draw my two swords. Though the mage had noticed my attempt on striking him between the eyes. He smiles vile at me and makes a small hand gesture, first meaningless but soon reddish sparks emit from his fingers and fuses together to three projectiles. On command he launches them away towards me. At high speed they hit me with incredible magical force. Sweeping me of my feet and knocking me back against the desk which stood less far behind me then I recalled. I didn't know if I heard the cracking of wood or the cracking of my bones. But what I was sure of was the fact of me being injured badly. Tremendous pain surges are flowing through my entire body. Much like being beat up by a mob of twenty robbers or overrun by horses. Not that I have ever felt such incident but I could imagine it must feel like this.

I try to roll over and grabble to my bag which still held some healing potions. I open the flask closest at my reach – the one that I had opened earlier – and quaff it at once. Praise the one who ever came with the idea of putting magical healing powers in a little flask. Like sweet zephyr winds I feel the pain drain away. One would get addicted to it.

I get up, pick up my two swords which were seemingly tossed away a bit further. Liflaf and Alonso already seem to have dealt some good blows to the mage the period of my mental absence from the action.

"STOP IT!" comes the voice of a small gnome girl, Pippa no doubt. No one seem to hear her voice. And surprisingly she was holding the baby-orc from next-room's.

"STOP IT!' she screams on top of her lungs. And holds her sickle at the throat of the infant who was crying very loud now. Chaos was havocking! The mage, fighting for his life cornered by Liflaf and Alonso, probably by now knowing his master's promise was nothing more than a foul and empty whisper. And then Pippa screaming and shouting to end this madness. I could only watch, stunned by overwhelming feelings.

The wizard stumbles and falls to the floor. His final breath clearly came out together with Liflaf's final stroke. Or was it Alonso's? Both seem to argue now who dealt the killing blow. Why am I not surprised?

Pippa places the toddler on the floor, not really knowing what to do or what to say. I look at her, at the orc toddler, at Liflaf and Alonso, the dead mage, and then notice one of the dogs is alive and laying in his cage, tired, probably near dead. I walk over to the poor animal, frightened as he was he didn't seem to trust any nearing person. Me including. I can't blame him so I decide to leave him be.

"Hey! This is a funny looking box!" Pippa chirps surprised, and puts the box – which looks not much bigger then an oversized pen case – in her backpack.

They are looting whatever there is to loot. But I can no longer wait to have my dear friend Yaeri alive again, and I leave for the village. That's what matter most to me now.

**Resurrection**

Priestess Alruaa was deep in her thoughts when I softly enter her residence. I stand silently at her doorstep hoping she would recognise me soon. She opens her eyes and opens her hands to me.

"My child… please, come in."

I bow my head slightly as I approach her. She was sitting on pillows on the floor next to a low table. The same table we had breakfast on. She offers me to sit down on her colourful collection of cushions. I gladly accept it.

"My god…" she says shaking her head slightly, "…you look like you had some trouble! And who is this?"

I look at the little dark skinned orc sitting on my arm.

"She's…" I hesitate, "she's an orc baby. We found her in a room all the way downstairs."

The little one had finally come to peace after the whole scene she got involuntary involved in with the wizard.

"I don't know what she was doing down there, but I truly felt she didn't belong there." I continue, "… I hope I can find a good home for her."

"You must know I can't offer her that home. This village is just not a place for an orc."

"I understand." I nod and let a moment of silence fill the room.

"So…" Alruaa decides to break the silence, "I take you didn't come to me just for the little orc?"

I smile at the Priestess and grab my bag.

"I bring good news." I speak gently and offer her a book. It was the journal of the goblin.

"Hmm, interesting!" she says and takes it from my hands "I'll have to study that later today."

Out of my bag I take another artefact. A massive glass orb welded on a solid foot, and embedded in a web of curving silver.

"When you look carefully you can see the warded passage of your village." I almost whisper it when staring into the orb again. The Priestess extends her hand in order to receive the orb.

"Later on I shall take it to the guards and see what to do with it." She says, "If we're fortunate enough it might break the spell in some way."

I nod and hand over the artefact. A feeling of being exhausted starts to take a big toll when I all of a sudden remember the exotic objects we found in the wizards room.

I quickly grab them and show them to the Priestess.

"We also found this." putting them on a pillow next to each other. They were a bunch of stuff that at first sight didn't seem all too important. However one of them was an amulet looking quite extraordinary.

"Well dear!" I could see the surprised look on Alruaa's face, "I wouldn't have dared to dream on having these back. They got stolen from me some time ago, you see."

She picks them up gentle and holds them like a treasure.

"I give you my deepest gratitude."

I bow my head slightly and remain silent.

"I hope…" Alruaa addresses me, "… you don't think I had forgotten our agreement?"

With a slight sparkle in the eye I look up at her and see her smiling.

"Why don't you get some rest with your friends for now. Tomorrow, when you're all feeling better, I'd be more than happy to do my end of the bargain."

With a sigh of relief I try to get up with all those sore spots and bruises. Check the little orc on my arm who's vastly asleep now. And walk on just to turn around again.

"Diola lle" I thank her and walk gently towards the door leading out.

We all went for a bath before dinner. It would be a very late night dinner the innkeeper told us, considering it was about 3AM in the morning according to him. None the less, he told us, he would be more then happy to fix us some.

"Haven't you dissolved yet in there?" I speak after I knocked the door of the bathroom, "Dinner is about to be served, hurry up."

"You've got my suit?" Pippa shouts from the other room.

"Yes I do. Is it okay for me to come in?"

"One more second, please, just slaying this dragon." Pippa yells, and goes for a last plunge.

"Say, Pippa, are you fighting a sea-battle out there?"

"It's alright, the coast is clear!" she answers and I slowly open the door.

"Here it is, still warm from drying in front of the fireplace." I say, laying Pippa's suit on a bench, "But tell me, how are your injuries?"

"Injuries? What Injuries?"

"Good!" I laugh "See you downstairs then!"

"Neely?"

"Yes?"

"What's your halfling friend like? You think she'd like me?"

"It 's not a she." I answer her teasing and close the door.

I come down again at the living room of the inn. A big fireplace with a lot of cushions and pillows around it. Only a bit further is a small table, both Liflaf and Alonso are sitting there checking out their loot. The innkeepers wife is repairing Alonso's cloths where for Alonso himself is still stuck with that bath towel. I decide to sit down a bit closer to the fireplace on a big blue pillow and place the little orc on my lap.

The room is very cosy, decorated with lots of textile displaying exotic figurines. The colours are all very warm too. From Cobalt Blue to Deep Purple, Amber Red to Cadmium Orange and Ochre Yellow.

Pippa comes down the stairs and greets us in her own frivolous way.

"Arrrg! Next time you commandeer the hair balm I turn you into the bar of soap you are, partner!" she stares at Alonso!

"Aye, please forgive this humble pirate," Alonso answers, "For believin' a fair maiden like you needed no hair balm t' look pretty."

"Then be at peace, for no harm is done," Pippa replies, and sat down next to Liflaf.

An odd thought enters my mind

"Where is Tittus?" I think. A sense of trouble shivering down my spine makes me get up from the cushion, grabbing the little half-orc.

"Could you hold him for a couple of minutes, please? I need to go…" and I hand over the toddler to Alonso. I go outside the inn and start looking for an answer to my own question.

"Where is Tittus? When's the last time I saw him?"

I ponder hard and remember I caught a glimpse of him on our way up to the Wemix village short after the defeat of the mage. I hadn't paid much attention to him but neither did he drew any of it.

The village is quiet, everybody is asleep most likely. My gaze is turned to infinity as I'm searching my mind. But nothing holds any key to Tittus' presence. Neither Wägtell nor Heidegger knows where he could be since they haven't seen him after our return. Both are still in the infirmary, Wägtell getting all patched up and Heidegger staying by his side. I wish them good night and return to the inn.

Just in time, for dinner is being served.

Pippa, Alonso and Liflaf spend most of the day checking out loot and dividing it equally amongst us. I get my share in gold pieces and, on request of Pippa, I check out the short bow from the gnome guard. We go to the old ruins above the village and decide to use an old tree as target practice. But the gnome bow soon reveals it self to be cursed in my opinion, it works heavily against my arm when trying to aim. I hand over the bow back to Pippa. She wants to give a try too, but she misses the old tree even harder then I did. We go back down and I decide to keep the arrows that came with it.

The sun was setting and the Priestess Alruaa gathers us for the ceremony. She leads us in a small chapel like room behind her residence. Wägtell and Heidegger are already inside when we come in. The room held more pillows on the floor and more carpets then in any other room or building I've been in so far. She gestures us to sit down and be at peace. There is a low altar in front of us which held Yaeri's body. Wrapped in white blankets but still with a face bearing the cold chill of death. Fumes of incense had already filled the chamber and proper candles are lit.

Alruaa is dressed in a ochre poncho like robe which runs from her shoulders to her stomach. Her lion like back wore a similar cloth that hangs from each side almost touching the floor.

She raises her hands which immediately commands silence if there hadn't been silence already present amongst us all.

"Let a dear friend plead for this poor soul's life." she begins in singing voice, "Goddess, hear us…"

With those words she signals me to get up. I stand up, shaking on my legs from nerves and exciting.

"Yaeri" I speak with quivering voice, "Come back to us… You have been taken unjust…" I hold my words a moment, a bit unsure what to say next.

"Let me love you in life, instead of treasuring your memory through death."

Silence sneaks around us while Allruaa stands with her eyes closed.

"Then so shall it be!" she commands, opens her eyes and opens her hand above a bowl holding fire. Dust falls down and smoke forms above the bowl freezing mid air. She waves her hand through it like to spread it above my friends body. She's speaking a divine language and the smoke hanging above Yaeri turns into silver and gold particles falling down like a rain of golden tranquillity. Shimmering by the candle light they form a golden coating around Yaeri. A burst of light suddenly emits from underneath the white blankets. Sending almost blinding rays through the room. An illusion or not but Yaeri's body seems to float for a short period. My eyes are filled with tears, blurring my sight, leaving me to blink them away or miss the rest of the wonder.

A gasp for air sounds from Yaeri's mouth, dried out and sore. Eyelids spring open and my friend's eyes stare at the sealing of the room like blinded. Alruaa picks up a bowl and gently empties it in Yaeri's mouth. Clearly Yaeri reacts to the fresh water and tries to move. She puts her hand on his/her forehead and smiles.

"Welcome back!" she says and looks at me gesturing to say something.

"Yaeri?" I whisper. My Halfling friend recognises my voice and turns his head to me staring with his blind eyes through me. I look at the priestess troubled.

"Fear not, his eyes need to adjust to the light." She explains comforting, "Just give him a moment."

There was a feast that same evening. Celebration of Yaeri's return and the good end of the troubles for the Wemix village. Everybody was laughing and drinking and singing songs. Alonso told one of his dangerous pirate stories. Liflaf was trying to impress some Wemix woman with bash-on the head stories. And Pippa, well she had a great time too… sleeping in her corner. A shame she's missing all this, but pity to wake her from her own little adventure…

"Hey Neely!" Yaeri says, "Thanks again, I don't think I can ever pay you back."

"Don't worry about it." I smile, "And who knows, you might."

"Well lets hope not…"

I give my friend a hug with my left arm while holding the baby orc with my right.

"So what's up with the little orc?" Yaeri asks. "Did you kidnap him?"

"He's a she!" I chuckle, "and no, I did not kidnap her… I found her down here in the lair of evil!"

"Right! Found! Probably, some friendly group of adventures have been sent now to retrieve the poor fella from the evil Ranger Elf"

"Hey! You can't just leave an infant down there. Whether if it was her home or she had been kidnapped or whatever reason was behind her presence. I felt it was right to take her along. She deserves better then where she was."

"Hey… I was merely teasing you." Yaeri smiles.

"It's okay…"

"I'll go grab some food before it's all gone! I'm starving!"

Yaeri turns around and heads for the large table holding a large buffet of all kinds of food. Meat, vegetables and a wide variety in spices.

"Don't worry, I'll find you a good home" I look at the toddler. While she puts her hands in my raven-black hair.

"I will call you Onyx."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**

* * *

**

**The Journey Back **

Just before our departure from the wemix village, we are halted by Alruaa. She holds a sealed document in her hands.

"Neely!" she calls my name. "Wait, I would like to ask you if you could take this document to the mayor of Cimbar. I hope I can entrust you with it that the seal does _not_ get broken."

"You can count on it." I bow my head slightly in understanding.

"May I ask what the document is about?" Pippa asks the Priestess.

"I don't think it's much of your concern, little one!" she stares at Pippa.

"Pardon my curiosity, m'lady." Pippa—embarrassed—withdraws herself to the back of the group.

"But I'll leave you not unanswered." She continues, "the document is in the matter of these recent incidents and must get to the mayor."

"We'll see to it to get it done." I say again, and I make a gesture to leave.

Once we reach the surface, with the old monastery ruins, we find out that the horses are stolen and the carriage is rend to splinters.

"This is just impossible," I sigh. "It's a two and a half day walk without the horses."

"Arr, and not to mention all the sand in your boots when crossing the dessert plain," Alonso mutters.

"We got plenty of rations from the wemix. That should not be any trouble."

"I guess there is no other way." Pippa drops a sad face thinking about her poor feet.

"Hey don't worry! We'll make it."

"I'm not concerned about us, I'm concerned about me boots!" Alonso says, "I paid a fair bit for them, would be a shame to see them go to waste!"

"Well, we better get moving then, if we want to get to Cimbar." I tell, and we all put on a pace. Liflaf taking the lead, followed by Alonso, Pippa and Yaeri, and myself at the rear—carrying the little Onyx.

The first hour is easy, walking on a hardened road underneath the shadow of trees. But shortly after we cross the river bridge we find ourselves facing the endless dryness of the desert plain. Vegetation grows thinner and smaller with every step we take towards the desert and shadow lessens while the intense rays of the sun heats our path.

We keep following the road that eventually would lead to Cimbar. All of us try to find a way to ease the mind and distract it from the burden of the trek across ochre sands.

"Neely?" Pippa asks, "What are you singing?"

I force a grin on my face and pad the little Onyx on her back.

"It's an old song my people used to sing."

"Lets hear it!"

I put on a thin voice at first, not all that audible, I start to sing it. Pippa smiles and looks at me with full interest.

"Who are the white men?" She asks.

"I think she means me kind, the human." Alonso joins us.

"Ow!" She nods, "but… why was it an unfair fight?"

I pause and try to answer her question on how the wild elves were driven back in dark woods by the growing human population and their towering stone cities.

"Sing it again!" Pippa shouts enthusiastically!

Behind us the sun is starting to set, casting long shadows.

"Hurayah! Hurayah!" Pippa takes lead in the chorus. I sing more loudly now with Onyx wiggling in delight. Alonso throws an empty bottle of rum far into the sand and sings along with a deep voice and surprisingly strong.

Stride for stride, singing loudly, we march the desert path.

It is just before darkness when we spot a concentration of trees in the distance.

"Hey!" Pippa yells. "Do you see that too? That looks like an oasis, we could rest there!"

"If it's not an illusion." Alonso warns Pippa, "Travellers be often cruelly tempted with the desires of their mind."

But the closer we get, the less it looks like an illusion. Soon we are at the cover of trees and fresh water springing from the ground.

"My feet!" Pippa shouts and pulls off her boots.

Alonso crashes in the sand and spreads arms and legs. Liflaf drops his backpack and stretches his back. I look for Yaeri, having noticed s'he hadn't said much during our trip. I find hir some distance away from the group.

"Hey you…" I greet hir, "…how's it going?"

"Okay, just very tired."

"We all are" I smile, "why don't you join the rest of us?"

"I don't know, I mean, you know me… I don't like the grouping stuff and such."

"If you should change your mind…well…" I stop and decide to give my friend a goodnight hug.

Nights are short here in the desert, only covering six hours of a day. With the rising of the sun we continue our march towards Cimbar.

"Neely?" Pippa asks again—in her Pippa way—"Where's Titus?"

"I don't know, I looked for him. But I couldn't find him."

"You think we'll find him?"

"Why?" I laugh. "You miss him?"

"No… but—"

"I got a strong feeling it isn't the last time we've seen him. Sooner or later he'll show up."

"How about Wägtell and the odd human?"

"And Heidegger?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"They were staying one day longer, both insisted on finding out where Titus vanished to."

Pippa nods understanding and picks up her thoughts again and puts her feet into autopilot.

We walk the entire day, through a landscape with nothing more then sand and rocks. Liflaf never makes a moment to speak with the rest, I would be surprised if he has said two words to Yaeri. Not that Yaeri is such a talker either, s'he has been keeping hir distance from the group again for all day.

"Tell me, Pippa…" it's my turn to ask the blondish gnome a question, "…how did you get in that wemix dungeon?"

"Now that's a long story," she answers, "but to make it short it was something like this."  
Then Pippa begins to tell her tale—which afterwards wasn't so short as she made it sound at first—about how she met Alonso and Liflaf while she was with her head in a badger hole—or so I understood, Pippa seem to have the habit to speak faster then her tongue can manage, so most of the time I got trouble getting the point to which she's heading. Anyway, the three of them got into some trouble with half-orcs and were chased into what looked to them as a narrow cave, which later revealed to them as being a backdoor entrance to the dungeon I was exploring at that same time.

"Well, that's how you got stuck with us," Pippa sighs and laughs.

"I sure am, Pippa." I laugh.

Night falls, but this time we didn't find a suitable place to rest. We're discussing whether to keep going or halt here and sleep in the open. Three against two vote for sleeping now, so sleep it is.

Liflaf decides to keep guard the first three hours, Pippa insists on doing the other three.

"Hey! I see lights!" Pippa wakes us all, "there are over twenty lights moving at the horizon."

"Make that thirty!" Liflaf corrects Pippa.

"They seem to be moving towards Cimbar." Alonso joins the speculations.

"What do you think they are?" Pippa asks Liflaf. "Lets check it out."

But Yaeri seems to be ahead on Liflaf, s'he is already sneaking towards the moving lights on silent halfling toes.

Later on both come to report that the lights are a group of—by the sight of banners—soldiers travelling in caravan.

"Do you think they will attack the city?" Pippa asks.

"Not a chance." Liflaf explains, "You don't attack a city with only a hundred men. Most likely they are soldiers coming back from war."

According to Pippa—so she told me the evening at the wemix—Liflaf once was a soldier and in service of a northern half-orc tribe. However he never gave any details on how and where and who. So she speaks.

"Sunrise will be here in a couple of hours." I tell them, "We should get some more sleep. It's still about a half a day march to Cimbar." We went to sleep.

We take the East Gate into Cimbar, closest to the city hall and the inn "The Prancing Okapi". A familiar inn to Yaeri. Our first destination, the city hall.

Things are still the same as we left them some days ago. The only difference is the grim mood hanging in the streets again. Much like it was the day I came here for the first time, somewhat about a week ago.

"I shall take this document to the mayor." I speak to the rest of the group. "If you like you can explore some of the city. Do the things you must, find shops and such."

"Yay! Shopping Spree!" Pippa jumps up. "Let me find a magic-shop!"

"There is one across this square, over there," I point to a humble building. "Let us all meet here again in… lets say one hour."

"Great!" Alonso says and goes his own way. Same for Pippa and Liflaf and Yaeri.

I take my steps to the large double door of the city halls.

I put my weight against the right massive wooden door, to push it open. The heavy door creaks and whines in a low rumbling voice as it swings open. The large hall must have amplified the sound by ten, making sure everyone is noticed by my entrance. The hall contains four heavy pillars supporting the sealing. Walls are decorated with banners of the city and a giant chandelier is hanging above the centre—making you wonder about the weight, if it would ever snap from it's hinges and drop on the head of an unfortunate person. I hope it wouldn't be me.

"Hi, er… I'm here to see the mayor." I speak, standing in front of the desk of an elder man.

"And for what matter might that be?"

"I carry a document for the mayor, to be personally delivered."

"I see…" the man sighs and looks from over his glasses to me. He bends down over a sheet of paper and quickly scribbles some on it and turns the sheet into my direction. He offers his scribing tool.

"Write your name here, please." He points to the spot beneath his scribbling. The old mans handwriting is hard to read, the best I can make of it is stating my presence and matter. I sign with my name at the pointed location.

"The door at your right is the one you need. Thank you." He speaks on a monotone way. I bow my head slightly but the old man didn't bother to look at me any further.

The guard standing next to that door requests me to leave any arms at the table next to him. I hand over my bow and two swords. He leads me in a room that's formally decorated yet house-like with a small table and a couch. There is a glass showcase which holds some artefacts I believe.

"Neely!" the joyful short man shouts from behind his desk.

"Now this is a surprise! How's that little halfling friend of yours? I hope the Wemix Priestess was willing to help you."

I'm showered with words.

"I'm doing great, as you can see." I answer the mayor, "I carry something for you from the Wemix Priestess."

He stares at the little Onyx sitting on my arm. His eyes betray his thoughts.

"She gave me a document…" I take the document from my bag "…on which she insisted I hand it over to you, personally."

"Ah, very well." He takes the sealed envelope from my hands, opens it, takes the sheet of paper from inside and inspects it closely. He reads it to himself, mute, moving his lips slightly.

"Hmm…" he puts the letter down on his desk and looks at me. "You know, things are starting to get clear to me."

I look puzzled at the mayor.

"Eh, don't break your head with my baffling." He shrugs to me, "I'll need to go talk to my superiors later today about all this. Things are getting way to serious if you ask me."

"Well, I'll leave you to your work then—"

"Hold on please. There is something I need to ask." The mayor goes on. "This morning a caravan with wounded soldiers arrived. The medical team has set up a field hospital at the main city gate. And I've heard they are looking for volunteers to help. Perhaps the healing hands of an elf might be welcome."

"I'll be more then gladly—"

That moment a knock comes from the door. At the signal of the mayor the guard opens it and at the doorway stands the old man from the desk with a strong man. A man in typical workers outfit. Leather gloves, reinforced boots and dust.

"Excuse me, Mayor, but this one says it's really urgent." the old man speaks to the mayor with his same monotone voice. The mayor bits the strong man to come in.

"Mayor!" the man begins. "The weapon deposit at docks has become infested with giant bug-like monsters just this afternoon. The two guards present have not been able to slay them and they are feeding them self on the city metal supplies!"

The mayor listens to the man carefully.

"If we don't act soon, there won't be anymore weapons left." the strong man continues.

"I'm not sure how fast I can summon more guards to the dock sides—"

"Pardon my interruption." I direct my self to the mayor first and then turn to the strong man, "I think I know some people who will want to help you out."

**

* * *

**

Healing Hands

As agreed, we all meet again in front of the magic shop. Pippa and Yaeri are already there, Alonso and Liflaf arrive a bit later.

"So what's new?" Pippa questions eagerly.

"The mayor wants to see you all." I grin, "especially you, Yaeri. He will be pleased to see you alive again."

Yaeri nods in understanding

"What does he want?" Liflaf asks.

"You'll have to go hear him out, he needs help with something. And I recommended you."

"Aye, then lets see what that Mayor wants us to do." Alonso says. "I do hope he realises that Alonso Ernesto Salvatore is not cheap to hire."

Pippa laughs with Alonso's comment but suddenly she realises something. "Us? What about you?"

"I'm not coming with you. My help is needed somewhere else."

Pippa looks at me questioning.

"They are looking for volunteers to help with first aid of the wounded soldiers who came in this morning."

"The caravan we saw?"

"Yes I suppose so. You'll be able to find me at the main city gate."

Pippa sighs and follows the other who are now walking towards the city hall.

My destination lies in the Caravan Court District at the main gate.

Caravan Court. It's the most southern district of the city and it holds the main gate to the city. The Court—so it is called in the common tongue—is a district of caravans and tents forming a labyrinth of dusty streets. Crowded by all kinds of adventurers, it's the place for entertainment. As a monument towers the great Stadium over the uncountable amount of little shops and stores.

The area within the South Gate is now filled with many ochre tents giving shade to row after row of injured men. The sand stone ground is covered with many sheets and seeded with all kinds of supplies and fabrics that could be used for support or, when needed, as bandage. Men and women dressed in white are running to and fro, giving service to the wounded wherever possible. The scene sends shivers up my spine. Men missing arms, legs, fingers, some more then others mutilated and carved, some petrified, scorched or entangled with roots, others already dead—poor souls who didn't make the trip back. I press Onyx closer to my chest hiding the horrors for her, she shouldn't have to watch it.

This reminds me to go look for a good home for her, I know I can't keep the little one.

Many eyes are upon me, by soldiers and healers. Seeing an elf is a rarity around these parts. Most of the population here are humans and half-orcs. If one should see an elf he or she would be most likely a rogue sailing the seas and doing paid-service on ships.

"Can I help you?" An elder voice addresses me and I turn my self to face the voice. A bald man stands before me, a tan face carrying mature age and wisdom, looking at me patiently with blue eyes shaded by large silver-white eyebrows.

"I've heard they were looking for volunteers to help with the caretaking of wounded men."

The elder man smiles,

"Any help is welcome, young elf."

I bow my head slightly and have to chuckle about the 'young elf' part. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm twice the age he is.

"Finding volunteers in these days has become a hard job. Not many are willing to lend aid for free."

I nod and he gestures me to follow him to the big tent not so far from where we're standing now. Like a well mannered man he shows me in, to follow my steps. A strong tall man turns towards us as we enter.

"Iason, the young elf is volunteering to help us…"

"Ah! Splendid!" The tall man shouts. "I hope you come with good intentions and not with malicious thoughts?"

Not knowing whether to feel offended or not I decide to leave it as a rhetorical question.

"I take you're the big chief around here?"

"Nah…" he laughs, "that's the old geezer next to you."

The old man leaves my side and walks over to the tall man.

"Son, never forget, experience and wisdom come with the title 'Old Geezer'." He smiles and pats Iason's shoulder.

"Iason is my son, as you might have expected," the old man says and all of sudden the resemblance comes clear. Same blue eyes with heavy eyebrows. "He is the main physician around here. And quite the joker."

"Ahum…" Iason clears his throat, "… lets get you familiar with the others. And what is your name?"

"Neely." I answer to his question.

"Very well—"

"Excuse me…" I interrupt, "… is it possible I could leave the little one here for today?"

"Well this ain't exactly the place for a toddler, it's not like we have a day-care centre."

"Don't you worry a bit about that, miss." The old man—Iason's father—approaches me with open hands. "I'd be more then happy to watch over the little rascal."

"Onyx is her name." I hand her over in the warm brace of the man. Onyx wiggles and tries to grab the mans short silver ring beard. She giggles.

"Just like thirty one years ago." The old man chuckles and releases a nostalgic sigh.

One knows what war brings when the casualties are counted, and the news brought by a messenger late this day is most grieving and tragic.

"There has been an assault on the city hall. Mayor Philo is found dead!" so does it sounds from the mouth of the runner. He also speaks of a murder at the magic shop.

Iason and his father hurry with supplies to the city hall to lend aid. I feel a stir in the stomach and could only stare in front of me.

"The Mayor? Dead?" I think, "To think of the fact I spoke with him only six hours ago."

"Neely?" one of the women healers grabs me at my arm snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Can you please help me a hand with this one?" she turns her eyes towards a young man who is still dressed in his armour.

"We need to move this one to the terminal ones." She says softly to me. I'm shocked.

"His ribs pierced his lungs, the moment we remove his plate his lungs will fill up with blood."

I urge to speak but no words come out.

"There is little we can do for him. Lets hope he has a family who can afford a resurrection ritual."

My face must become as pale as the one of the young man, though I had not to share the same fate as him.

The sun is setting now, casting long shadows over the city. I decide to check on Onyx and found her on the lap of a strong woman, she must be around her late fifty's—human years. The woman smiles at me when I enter the big tent.

"She's sleeping. Though she hasn't eaten yet." She tells me in a soft tone. I turn towards the bowl with water and clean my hands. I dry them to some cloth lying next to it.

"Here, you take her a while. I'm going to check on the patients." She gets up from one of the bedrolls.

"Okay… thank you for watching over her."

"No problem kiddo."

She hands over Onyx and walks to the exit.

"I'm Neely." I tell her.

"I know," she turns and smiles, "I'm Leora, Iason's mother."

Leora leaves the tent. With the little one on my arm I walk over to one of those bedrolls. First grabbing my bag and then I decide to sit down on the bedroll the strong woman was sitting on. I'm sure she wouldn't mind… or at least I hope. I open my bag and look for something to eat. Some biscuit, some conserved fruit and a hand full of dates. With some baby gibberish, little Onyx points to the biscuit as I pull it from my bag.

"Here you go…" I give her the whole biscuit and she wraps her little hands with tiny fingers around it. Holding it tight as she brings the biscuit to her mouth.

I take some dates and conserved fruit for myself. Hell, why not all? I won't need them, now that we're in the city again.

"Perhaps we should go see our friends." I tell little Onyx—who's feasting on the biscuit—but knowing she won't say anything back, but merely give a glimpse of interest over her more serious concern; devouring the cookie.

I'm being pulled from my sleep. I must have dozed off I conclude. Disorientated I try to get a grip on my surroundings and clear my head. Night's shade has covered the city and some obscure figures are standing in front of me.

"Neely?"

I know that voice. It is Pippa. She's followed by Yaeri.

"Hello, Pippa." I answer her hail.

"We've come to check on you." Yaeri speaks.

"Well here I am… and in god-knows what hour of the night."

Luckily they can't see me rolling my eyes, or so I hope. I take a moment to see if all of this had waken Onyx, but she's still deep asleep. Yaeri steps from behind Pippa.

"Neely, we got to tell you something." Yaeri sounds like s'he is about to make a confession. But instead, they—on their turn—bring me the news of the Mayor's death. On how the city hall was attacked by a black robed man with a bald head. And more, how they found the mayors body all wrapped in spiders web tissue. The story gets even more interesting when they bring up the fact the spider-summoner mentioned something about his master. That together with their findings at the weapon deposit at the docks. An infestation of rust monsters—eating all metal objects. Some half-orc mage was behind it and, coincidence or not, also referring to his master.

"That's about it so far." Yaeri ends hir tale. A silence follows. Silent, like you could almost hear one think.

"This really gives you something to ponder about." I say.

I can see Pippa nod her head in the very dim light coming from outside the tent.

"We should get some sleep now." She tells Yaeri. "Goodnight, Neely."

"Thanks for sharing this with me."

"No problem! Euhm, when will you be done here?"

"I don't know, most of the first aid has been done. My guess is it's now up to the more experienced healers."

Pippa gives me a hug.

"Bye for now." Yaeri says and decides to hug me too.

"Come on shorty!" Pippa—who stands only one inch taller—pokes Yaeri to follow. Both leave the tent and disappear back into the city shadows from which they came.

**

* * *

**

The Betrayal Of Orriseid

Two days have passed and we are summoned before Queen Melisanda of Arrabar herself. Reason unknown.

I've left Onyx with Leona and Owen—Iason's father, the old man. I'm sure she's in good hands.

I meet the rest in front of the palace. I notice the absence of Liflaf. Apparently Liflaf had lost his interest in the group and went his own way—boxing for money at the stadium, according to Alonso.

Even more surprising is the presence of Wägtell. As we walk through the palace yard toward the queens throne room, Wägtell tells me about his search for Titus:

"The day after you left, me and Heidegger had set out to follow Titus' trail. The wemix gave us two horses, on which we rode to Cimbar. By nightfall we reached the south gate, and spoke with the guards if any of them had seen Titus. One of them had seen a man—matching the description we made—exit the city only one hour ago. With haste we set out heading south—the way Titus' trail led. We travelled two days. A nomadic merchant—near the city Soorenar—told us that he had seen the man we described. However Titus—according to the man—had passed the merchant one day ago. He clearly moved at a much greater speed than we did. Heidegger pressed on pursuit while I decided to return and find you."

"Do you have any motive for his haste?" I ask Wägtell.

"Not a clue. Whatever it is, it's making him move with dire speed."

At the entrance to the throne room we're halted by four guards. They ask for our business and command to lay down arms. The four lead us in. They close the huge reinforced doors as soon as we are inside. The throne room is breath taking large. The colossal ceiling is supported by countless pillars decorated with banners. The side walls hold large windows emitting a spectacle of light. A guard gestures us forward and we walk to the centre of the hall. Our steps resonate in all dimensions making me uncomfortable.

There is another group of people standing not so far from where we're standing now. Five there are. A human wearing a full plate armour. More muscle then brain. You can almost say stupidity is written on his grinning face. Second is a drow. It's unusual to see a dark-skinned elf in these parts. Her white hair hides most of her facial features from me. Third, a female bow-woman clothed in a white dress, she looks strange beyond imagination. Her dry and crackled skin is something I have never seen before. I wonder what specie she is. I will assign the fourth number to the black hooded gnome. A thief, most likely. With his dark cloths he doesn't look like the type I would trust easily. As last, number five, is a half-orc mage. Despite his orcish features he looks the smartest member of the group.

Queen Melisanda is announced by a herald as she enters her throne room from a door at the back. Escorted by two men she makes her way to her throne at which four people—counsellors no doubt—stood. One of the two men now appears to be a short haired woman dressed up in a fancy plate mail with a mace at her belt. There is little interest to be found in her cold eyes. The other man is a wizard, wearing a long robe and holding richly decorated staff in his right hand. Queen Melisanda gestures us to come closer.

"Do you know why I have summoned you?" Melisanda addresses our group. We all shake our head.

"Very well." She says and gives a glimpse at the wizard standing at her right side.

"Let the one calling him self Yaeri step forward." The wizards says, throwing his gaze at our halfling friend. I look puzzled at Yaeri and see Pippa—who stands at hir side—starting to become all nervous almost sweating it out. Yaeri steps forward as commanded.

"If you would follow me." The wizard speaks his second command. And Yaeri does as s'he is told, following the wizard to the room from which the Queen and two escorts came earlier.

"As for you," Melisanda turns herself back to us, "I've got something else for you."  
Pippa's face turns pale at those words.

"I have an assignment for you. One that requires the more casual civilian instead of military units. You have proven yourself valiant two days ago and I feel I can entrust you with this mission."  
Pippa gives a sigh of relief.

"Chessenta has been suffering from raids and skirmishes for some months now. Groups and individuals have tried to assault diverse locations of our old empire. From plundering farms and villages to raising our very own dead and sending them to weaken our forts. Cimbar is slowly beginning to become a main target.

"Orriseid Varetheus, Cimbar's finest captain, has recently been dispatched to the Adderswamp—which lays south of Cimbar—to investigate the latest problem. Bandits—we think—have been murdering out and destroying our iron supply caravans. We had hoped Orriseid would solve all this but we hadn't received any news from him for over a week. Until yesterday."  
Melisanda pauses for a moment.

"Word has reached us that Orriseid has occupied the city Airspur. Without my orders he has deployed a fifth of Cimbar's army within the walls of Airspur."  
The door at the back opens again and the wizard walks out. He comes to stand at the Queens right side again. Melisanda looks at the other party a moment and back to us.

"Both of you have a different mission. You…" Melisanda now directs herself to the other party, "… will have to travel to the Adderswamp and investigate what made Orriseid go rogue."

"Meanwhile…" Melisanda directs her gaze back toward our party," … you will have to travel to Airspur and seek Orriseid. I want you to bring him before me, alive. Second, I want you to order the army back to the city. You will be accompanied by Asfer, who will be carrying the official orders and she will ensure that all his belongs will get here in the hope we could learn more about his strange behaviour."

Asfer—the woman at Melisanda's left side—descends from the slightly higher floor piece on which the throne is placed.

"If you would follow Asfer, she will lead you to the stables." Melisanda gestures us out. As we turn and walk behind Asfer the Queen gives a more detailed explanation to the other party. Only to be vaguely heard over the sound of our footsteps, especially Asfer's greaves.

Asfer leads us to the horse stables, where we are to choose a horse for our journey to Airspur. She clearly has her own horse as she walks—without throwing the slightest glimpse at the other horses—towards a black stalwart animal showing great strength. My eye catches quite a different one. Great agility emits from it's slender but strong body. Long white manes hang from his neck and a few strands hang before his pride and noble eyes.

"You have a good eye for fine animals." A young man says after he came standing next to me.

"Shall I saddle him up for you?" he asks.

"Nah, I'm fine. I don't require any help. But thanks anyway." I reply to his offer. "Perhaps you could help the blond gnome. She looks like she could use some help."

"Ah, very well." He says and sets a pace toward Pippa.

As soon as I have my horse saddled up I walk him out of the stables. I hold next to Asfer and jump in the saddle. I do a second check on the reins and secure the girth a little tighter.

Wägtell is the second to come out of the stables. He's mounted on a dark horse that is somewhat small for Wägtell's size. It takes a while before Pippa and Alonso come out, but eventually they do. On donkeys! Understandable for a gnome, but seeing Alonso on a donkey gives an uncontrollable urge to giggle. His feet are so close to the ground, that if the donkey gets tired, he could take over at any moment.

"What?" Alonso says raising his hands questioning.

"People, from this point we'll journey west to Airspur. It will be a three day trip on these mounts, nothing tells us it will go smooth but lets hope it does. Once we arrive at Airspur our primary objective is locating Captain Orriseid and capture him. Second objective will be ordering Cimbar's forces back. Now lets go." Asfer commands and spurs her horse forward.  
I let Wägtell pass me by and then Alonso so I can join Pippa at rear. Despite a good choice of horse, Wägtell doesn't seem to know how to handle it well. His horse often takes a walk with him instead of him walking the horse. Perhaps I should have taught them some basics before we departed.

"So tell me…" I address Pippa, "…what was up with you at the throne room, earlier?

"What do you mean?" She looks away.

"I mean, you were starting to get really nervous and sweaty."

"Was I? Well I can't remember. Probably nothing." She gives an awkward smile and tries spurring her donkey to walk a bit faster. We pass under the arc of the West Gate.

"Try spurring with your heels a bit behind the girth. Not onto it." I correct her. Pippa sighs.

"I've never done this before. Riding an animal."

"It's a bit weird at first but you'll get the hang of it."  
Asfer puts her horse in gallop and urges us all to put up the pace. Quickly, Wägtell's horse imitates Asfer's horse and takes up her pace. Alonso has a bit more trouble getting his donkey in gallop.

"Remember, spur him behind the girth and don't hold on so tight on those reins. He should be able to stretch his neck without the bit tearing his mouth."  
Pippa's donkey jumps in gallop making Pippa bounce up and down.

"Stay in the saddle, don't fall of now. You're doing great." I put up a slow gallop to match the strides of Pippa's donkey.

"I – do – on't – fe – el – grea – eat!" she squeaks while bouncing on her donkey.

"You should press your knees inwards so you clasp your legs around his side. Then try to move your hips on the rhythm of his steps."  
Pippa looks confused and scared.

"Look at me. You see how I move my hips? It's hard to explain but…" I point to some important spots Pippa should keep focussed on, "…when he stretches his neck you should bring your hips forward. When he brings his neck back up—which will also lower his bottom—then you should move your hips back."  
With trial and error she tries to get the hang of it.

"Once you got it it's a piece of cake, and you won't have to think about it. It takes a little practice."  
She nods.

"Well, I'm going to check on the front."

I join Asfer, who's currently taking lead.

"Perhaps you should take the rear, to make sure no one falls behind. I'd like to scout ahead."  
With a shrug she lowers her pace, falls back, and joins again behind Pippa. On a higher pace I leave the group behind.

**

* * *

**

The Road To Airspur

The tree line of the forest which holds the old monastery and the Wemix settlement slowly emerges from behind the horizon after a steady pace of two hours riding. I put my horse in a slow step, give him free reins and a breather until the others have caught up with me. The sun is doing her best once again, even though it's slowly becoming late afternoon.

It's about an hour later and together we reach the borders of the forest. Grass and bushes start to cover the ground again and the shade of the trees will be more then welcome. The sound of the river makes our mounts eager for fresh and cool water. The river still runs the same way it ran some days ago. Though unlike the river, the bridge crossing it is not the same anymore. Now it's nothing more then some splintered wood, smashed and torn apart.

"What do we do now?" Pippa asks.

"I guess we'll just have to follow the river and hope to find another bridge." I reply to her.

Asfer immediately orders her horse forward.

"Can't we have some rest first?" Pippa asks Asfer who now halts and stares down at Pippa.

"No. We should be past these wood before nightfall. With this… detour we won't have any spare time left."  
Pippa releases a long sigh and climbs back on her donkey. She commands him forward with her feet and knees, but to no avail.

"Go Marcel, go! You heard the lady. No delay." She frowns at her donkey—whom she named Marcel.

In a single file we follow the river on it's right riverbank. The river cuts it's self deeper into the soil the further we go. To the point the river surface is about four feet below the terrain we're walking on. Everybody is silent as if in deep thought or listening to the calming sound of the rippling water on a steady beat of horseshoes. The next wooden bridge is slowly coming in visual range. Much stronger and broader then the other one, supported on four pillars standing with their feet in the river.  
Asfer raises her hand as to command a halt and we all put our mounts in a gentle step. Slowly we take our steps towards the bridge where once again Asfer puts her hand in the air. We all halt and watch in anticipation to Asfer. Like a deer sniffing the air, she gazes around as if looking for something. I join her at the front.

"What is it?" I ask Asfer. She shakes her head.

"We should cross the bridge one by one." She says after a few seconds.

"Alright. I'll go first"

The hollow sound of hooves on the wooden bridge reverbs from underneath the bridge. As soon as I'm near the other side I can hear the next person threading the bridge's wooden surface. Unexpectedly, a deep grumbling voice comes from below the bridge.  
I turn my horse around and see from the side of the bridge a large green creature climbing up. Alonso—who is second on the bridge—startles for a moment while his donkey, frightened, takes a few steps back.

"A forest troll!" I yell at the sight of this hideous giant and I draw both bow and arrow. The arrow hits the troll in the deltoid and he turns around. He grabs the arrow, sticking from his upper arm, and tears it out violently. With wide open mouth he roars fiercely at me and throws the broken arrow like a twig to the floor. Like snow smelting before the sun, his wound closes again leaving no trace of injury.

I recall these creatures to be famous for the their incredible regeneration, only to be beaten by fire or acid—which none of us caries at the moment. This could become dramatic.

Meanwhile Alonso has drawn his swords and takes his chances in a toe to toe dance with the troll. That same moment a bright light shines down from the sky as if a godly answer comes to the prayers of the faithful. Asfer lowers her morningstar which now shines with divine brilliance. Both Alonso's rapier and scimitar are glanced off by the thick hide of the troll. I draw my long sword from it's sheath and ride towards the troll to flank it. Asfer comes to stand next to Alonso, also taking a swing at the troll. All our attacks prove to do little damage to it.

"Meskar cha tesh demar!" Pippa yells all of a sudden as if commanding the creature. The troll looks up as if not knowing what's hitting him. Staggering he steps back, takes a small spin and falls flat on the bridge's surface.

"Is he dead?" Alonso stares at the troll.

"No." answers Pippa from the back. Alonso turns around and looks at the little gnome sorceress. "He's sleeping like a baby," she continues.  
Alonso looks full of surprise, from Pippa to the troll and back.

"For how long?"

"I don't know. A few minutes? An hour? Days? It's not like these spells come with a manual."

"I think we should just kill it. Just to be sure." Alonso says, not all too comfortable with Pippa's answer.

I can see Pippa ponder the action, her pinkish eyes moving to the thinking corner of their sockets.

Asfer descents from her mount and smashes her morningstar on the skull of the sleeping troll.

"We should make a fire and burn the remains." Wägtell says—who now comes forth from the back.

"Or we could just dump it in the water." Alonso joins the discussion on how to eliminate the dead troll the best.

"Oh! I got it! We could chop it in half, burn one half, and dump the other half in the river." Pippa shouts.

_Oh dear,_ I think and decide to go find something to eat in the forest whilst they debate furthermore. I'll be starved if I have to see the end to this.

Despite the detour, we reach the road leading out a few hours before sunset. Once out of the forest we stop and set up camp near the side of the road: A much welcomed rest. Wägtell and Pippa hit the sack as soon as they can. Asfer's doing some meditation and prayers. While Alonso is taking a sip of his wine filled glass.

"I don't feel so sleepy," Alonso starts to speak gently after all is quiet and stares into the campfire.

"We could talk a bit." I say while putting my leather armour off and lying it next to my bag.

"Ye know. I never sleep well on the mainland. I guess you could say I'm used to the gentle rocking of a ship."

"I would be sick all night, I don't have it for boats." I say with a sparkle of laughter in my voice. I try to comb nasty knits from my hair and notice how much sand is in it.  
_And I don't have it for sand either_, I think to myself.

"Aye, but ye get used to it. Sailing under a veil of stars and a glimmering moon. Always having a perfect sunrise and sunset. I wouldn't want to trade it for anything else. Though this, irony teaches us, I'm a captain without a ship." Alonso sighs and stares into the vast emptiness of his glass. "Let me get another drink." He pops a bottle of wine out of backpack.

"You must have seen a lot of places," I say, seeing him in the dim light with the contrast of light and shadow accenting his strong features, making him mysterious and attractive.

"Ah, a fine year this bottle be—aye, lots of places—now where's that bloody opener—in fact, I've sailed all the seas of Faerûn." Alonso finds his opener and doesn't leave that bottle unopened for much longer. "From the seven corners of the Great Sea, the everlasting Trackless Sea, and the Shining Sea to the Sea of the Fallen Stars." He offers me a glass with some wine. I decide to give it a try.

"Then you must have been to the Sword Coast."

"Er, I … I think I be having nay." He scratches his head embarrassed.

"Oh! But it's such an amazing place. All those cultures come together. All kinds of different styles, all kinds of different people. It's so unlike here. You should see it."

"Aye, once I be having a ship I might." He empties his glass in one gulp .

We talk about the places we've been to, places we'd like to go to. Though he's not eager in sharing any information about where he's from, for instance, or any other information relating to his past or childhood, any attempt results into the changing of subject to sturdy sailing stories.

The early sunrays thaw the desert night's chill and one by one we wake from our much deserved rest. Today we will reach Airspur.

"Guys? I had a most disturbing dream last night!" Pippa draws our attention. We look at her in surprise, no one had yet entertained the others with their dreams.

"It gave me the creeps! We were back beneath the wemix village in the garrison of the half-orcs, and everything was lit in fire. Floor, wall, ceiling, the tapestries, everything caught into it. Then the door of the mad mage swung open and there he stood, not the mage but Titus! He was laughing madly while flames reached out for him until he fully got consumed by it."

"That's quite an imagination ye have, little lass." Alonso says to Pippa, not taking her all too serious."

"It was, it startled me out of my sleep. But I did not dare to wake anyone for it. I just tried to go to sleep again. This _could_ be a sign!"

"Me dear, dreams have nay signs. That's why they are just dreams." He tries to talk that nonsense out of Pippa's head.

"But—" Pippa says but looks sad in my direction when Alonso gathers his stuff and walks to his donkey.

It's not much later after we set off again that my eyes spot a black silhouette in the far distance. It is four legged and it's walking on an idling pace. It halts at our road further away.

"I'm going to check it out" I tell the rest, "wait here a moment."  
I gallop towards the silhouette and I soon learn that it's only a camel. I lessen my pace and decide to turn back.  
_What a joke_, I think and laugh by myself. The camel has spotted me and all of a sudden it bursts into a charge. The charging beast soon seems a huge amount larger than a mere camel. Hastily I turn around and spur my horse to maximum speed, back to the others. In a raging madness the beast keeps on the pursuit. I flip myself on my horse, now facing the rear. I'll give him something to chew on!

My first arrow hits but doesn't seem to bother or stagger the maddened camel in the least. My second and third arrow do even worse, both bouncing off the beast's bony body plating. I flip back and ride behind the others who are waiting armed. Wägtell stands with sturdy planted feet, holding his hammer high at level with his shoulders, ready to take his swing. Alonso stands ready to cast both javelins at the charging camel as soon as he's within the right range.

The first javelin is cast but is also bounced off, as is the second. Wägtell yells as the camel is only a few steps away and swings with all his might at the beast, literally knocking the legs from underneath it. Tumbling and rolling, the raging camel is brought to a fall. Wägtell lifts his heavy hammer and lands it on the skull of the beast, which gives the typical known crushing-melon sound.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Alonso says with panting heart.

"A dire camel, that would be my best guess." I reply.

"I've never heard of a dire camel." Pippa squeaks, still sitting on her donkey.

"Neither have I, that's why I'm guessing it, Pippa."

"Enough about dire camels, we should get a move on." Asfer says curt.

A four hour march brings us to a road block guarded by six guards—two swordsmen and four bowmen. Asfer descends from her horse and walks over to one of the soldiers. She shows them the orders from the queen to return back to Cimbar. All six comply to Asfer's command and gather their equipment. In forced march they walk the road we came from while Asfer mounts her horse and urges to resume our course toward Airspur.

We hit a second road block, this time they aren't soldiers—no uniform dress code, nor taking any disciplined formation.

"Mercenaries!" I tell all the others. "Wait here out of their range. I'll go check them out, see whether they're hostile or not."  
They nod and hold their horses—and donkeys. I start my horse in gallop and approach the road block in a half arc. This way I can easily turn around in case they prove to be hostile. Two bowmen raise their bow and take aim, draw and fire. Quickly, I pull the left rein and spur my horse back to the others. One arrow flies by and hits the desert sand a few feet in front of me. Just an eye blink after the first one landed I feel the impact of the second arrow in the side of my armour. The warm running of blood and the coming of stinging pain makes me realise the arrow went through the leather and pierced my flesh.  
I get back to the others and dismount fast, I loosen the side strap of my armour after I pull out the arrow. I scream and I would curse if I wasn't pressing my teeth together. Asfer hands me a potion which I drink at once. The wounds close again as if they were never there.

"For ought I care, we should walk around," Alonso says.

"I'm _not_ letting that scum have it their way," Wägtell responds to Alonso's suggestion.

"Leaving the road wouldn't be so wise either," I tell them.

"Then what can we do?" says Pippa.

I ride in a gentle step towards the roadblock, planning on making a circle around it. While I'm the distraction, I also plan to take out the human mage that accompanies them. I look around, trying to guess how far the others would be by now. I see the mercenary bowmen watch me closely and ready to fire again, others are anxiously gazing to find the others, but in vain. As long as they stay on the road no footprints will give them away. Pippa's plan to make Wägtell, Alonso and Asfer invisible was brilliant.

I spur my horse in gallop, raise my bow, aim, and fire at the mage. A direct hit. The other two bowmen fire back, both missing. The mage tries to find cover behind the barricade and casts a spell. I fire again, but my arrow hits the wooden barricade with a dull sound. That moment, the sudden appearance of Wägtell and Alonso amongst them nails the mercenaries to the ground in surprise. A half plated half orc wearing a steel shield with a flail yells something orcish. A bright light flashes around him and all of his partners. The two bowmen—who appear to be two half-elves, one wearing a half plate, the other a studded leather—turn around, drop their bow and draw a scimitar. The mage comes from behind his cover and runs past some of his friends. I ride on and fire again at the running mage. Another hit, he staggers forward and grabs for his bag.

"Where the bloody hell is _our_ cleric!" I can hear Alonso yell over the sound of weapon fighting. Wägtell takes some good swings at a sturdy human—dressed in a chain mail armour and wielding a long sword with a large wooden shield—who's trying to give cover to their fleeing mage together with another half orc—this one is using a large sword. The mage pants and quaffs a potion, when in a blink of an eye Asfer appears behind him and she lands her morningstar at the half-orc's head. Running in terror doesn't bring him far, for Pippa is awaiting him with three red shining magic missiles. The mage moans as he falls down, dead. I finish one of those half-elf bowmen with a well aimed shot.

_That makes number two_, I think. Alonso retreats from his position and calls for healing. The second half-elf bowmen takes the opportunity to grab for his bow, if he thinks he'll have a clean shot at my friend he'll have to think again. I move myself between him and our retreating pirate, I raise my sword and attempts to plant it in his shoulder, though he was agile enough to dodge the blow.

"Hold!" Asfer shouts, extending her hand in a stop-commanding gesture. The half-elf goes ridged, constricted by magical summoned chains. Meanwhile Wägtell bashes his hammer at the chest plate of the human fighter, knocking him out of his socks, leaving him to coughing blood. Right next to the human mage and the half-orc fighter. I turn myself to the flail wielding half-orc—cleric, my guess—standing on my other side, but he dropped his mace and surrendered himself.

Shortly after, interrogation learns us that the band of mercenaries are hired by Orriseid himself.  
Their orders: to stop _everyone_.

"Why would Orriseid hire mercenaries if he has such an army at his disposal?" Pippa asks Asfer.

"A simple reason, young girl," she answers. "Mercenaries have no restrictions towards killing anyone, unlike a soldier. Someone clearly wants us not to reach Airspur."  
And Asfer climbs back on her horse.

**

* * *

**

Airspur

We approach Airspur with it's large city gate and fortified walls. In front of the gate there is a pavilion encampment behind a spiked barricade arcing from the left wall to the right wall of the gate. A twenty some bowmen dressed in Cimbar's military code stand fixed and ready. One of the guards orders us to halt and state our business. Asfer steps forward.

"I've come with orders of the Queen and need to speak your captain." She shouts at the guard in a loud and strong voice.

The guard looks to his mate standing a few steps behind him, speaks some words to him—not understandable to us due to the distance.

"Hold your positions, I shall go speak with my superior and return to you with his words."

The one guard turns around, walks to where the tents are set and disappears out of sight somewhere between them.

"This is taking forever." Wägtell sighs, "what has it been? A half hour since he left?"

"I guess there is lots to discuss," I tell Wägtell, feeling the same way about this situation.

"And the sun is doing a terrible thing to my sk—ouch!" Pippa interrupts her sentence. "Hey! Who threw a pebble at me?"  
We all gaze at each other, not knowing what she's talking about.

"Someone, or something, threw this little stone at me!" she stands up angry, showing a little rock being pressed between thumb and index finger.

"Pippa, all of us are totally clueless as to what you're talking about." I say to her.

"But—"

"Perhaps it's a sign it will be raining stones sometime soon." I laugh out loud.

"Fine! Don't believe me." Pippa sits down again and crosses her arms in anger.

"My guess is the sun did a terrible thing to her sanity too," Wägtell chuckles.  
Asfer stands up and takes a few steps forward. The guard has returned.

"My superior wishes to speak to you," the guard shouts in a loud voice.

We are being lead in by the guard, first of all he shows us the horse stables—so we can leave our mounts—and then he escorts us to one of the pavilions and bids us to enter. The interior of the pavilion is decorated soberly and efficiently: maps of different regions of Chessenta, three braziers, each standing at a side of the tent, a weapon rack and armour stand, a luxury bedroll and foldable table—at the back of the tent—with some desk accessories. Near the table stands a man with a tanned skin—much like all the other soldiers I've seen so far—brown hair and dark eyes. He's wearing a leather shirt—the type you wear underneath your armour—and he has a sword hanging from his belt. The guard halts near the entrance and stands in salute.

"At ease, soldier." The man says and leaves the tent again. I then notice two more guards are standing at each side of the entrance.

"What is this order you spoke of?"  
Asfer takes the parchment—on which Melisanda's orders are written—from her bag and holds it in front of to the man.

"By orders of the Queen, you and your forces must return to Cimbar at once," she says.

"Queen Melisanda?" he stutters, "I thought…I mean we were told by captain Orriseid that it were the orders of the Queen to take Airspur with force and destroy the weapon forges."

"She certainly did _not_." She stares icily at the man and continues, "Captain Orriseid shall be taken into custody and be brought before the Queen. His betrayal is not taken lightly."

"Of course."

"I want you to order your men back immediately and bring us to captain Orriseid."

"I'm afraid I have no knowledge of the captains whereabouts."  
Asfer sighs.

"Would you like me to escort you into the city?" the man offers us without hesitation.

"Sure." The rest of us says, even before Asfer could say anything.

The man nods and walks past us, orders the guards to accompany him and leaves his tent. Asfer tucks the parchment away and follows the man's steps.

The man holds near the horse stables, as does Asfer.

"You are free to take supplies from the military stock," he says, "that gives us less to carry back."  
We all go our own way, checking out the supply tents, all but Asfer and the man.

After a ten some minutes I return to where Asfer and the man stand. I seem to be the first, none of the others have returned. I've helped myself to a magical med kit, two packs of arrows—one pack looks above average and the other pack gives an odd vibrating feeling—and a new studded leather—which I decide to go bind on my horse. There's no trace of the others yet.

Asfer pats her foot on the ground impatiently.

"What kind of egg-baked operation do they think we're running here?" She says irritated.  
It takes the others another twenty minutes until they are back.

"By Torm, finally!" Asfer says, undeniably irritated.  
The sound of a snapping dried twig comes from a few feet away.

"What was that?" Pippa jumps up, looking around anxiously. We all gaze around us holding our breath, the wind is blowing gently making a soft rustling sandy sound.

"Neely!" she stares at me with worried eyes. Though I can't give her any explanation for it, we all heard it without doubt. Pippa starts mumbling something to herself and closes her eyes. She extends her hands.

"There!" She points out to the officer's tent, "I felt him!"  
Alonso and Wägtell immediately rush towards the tent. A moment later they both come back, shaking their head with raised shoulders and open hands.

"Thar was nay one in thar, lass." Alonso says laying his hand on Pippa's shoulder. She shakes her head.

"I felt him run away, then he was gone."

"Now that we're back together after this _short_ interlude we can get back to what we are supposed to do." Asfer's annoyance has just reached it's climax.

The big gate—giving entrance to the city from the pavilion—stands wide open and has been barricaded with all kinds of debris from wooden barrels to reinforced charts, the welcoming plaza is reduced to a plain of rubble and smouldering fires. A trail of murder and destruction has havocked it's way up the broad causeway like a rampaging hurricane. Corpses—both human and half-orc—are rich fully sown, laying in their own blood which time has made black and murky. Huge smoke pillars rise from the far distance polluting the air with their foul smell of ash.

"Orriseid had ordered the destruction of the weapon forges which is where the smoke rises from." So speaks our escorting man.

"I suggest you hurry yourself to the forges and withdraw every last soldier. I want this city relieved of this siege by dusk!"  
The man hustles to the forges as we near the end of the causeway.

Then two half-orcs carrying a wounded comrade come from around the corner—I don't recognise their uniforms as being the one of Cimbar, I take they must be from Airspur. Alarmed by our presence they lay him on the ground and both draw arms.

"Wägtell, I think you—as one of their kind—should go explain the situation," I suggest. "What do you think?"

"Okay, I'll give it a try." Wägtell hangs his hammer on his belt and shows his unarmed hands to the half-orcs.

"Hold, we're not here to fight for war. We've come to settle this and return Cimbar's forces."  
The one half-orc speaks something in orcish to the other.

"What do they say?" I ask Wägtell. "Tell them I can help their wounded friend."

"We half-orcs _do_ speak common, you can tell them yourself."

"Very well." I step forward. "I could help yo—"

"Kurrauz Zankurv!" one of the half-orcs yells at me pointing his long sword in my direction. In shock I step back.

"If you want to help get some potions for our friend. You find them in the building over there." The second half-orc speaks, pointing to a siege battered building.

"Here is a small one to stabilize him" I take a potion from my bag and offer it to the half-orc. Ungratefully he tugs the potion from my hands.

"Now get some big ones!" he grumbles.

We stand before the door of the building with the battered walls—not that it's the only building in bad condition but this one sure is the worse. Listening at the door teaches us that something is inside.

"Boars, and I would say about four of them." I conclude.  
Wägtell kicks in the door and peers into solid darkness. One of the boars comes standing into the column of light being cast in from the doorway. Foaming of rage it tries to take a bite at Wägtell, but he jumps back in time. I had readied my bow and fire in the mouth of the feral looking beast. Alonso jabs his scimitar and rapier into the neck of the mad boar, finishing it off. The dire boar is followed by a second and a third of it's kind. The three boar corpses disappeared as soon as their dying breath came out.

"It's seems they were magically summoned," I say. Wägtell peers into the solid darkness of the room and then steps inside. From inside the room he shouts something about the place being a mess and not much left intact. Then he comes out with a bag holding six large potions, all of the healing type.  
_And one to settle the bill_, I think while snatching one of the potions from the bag and placing it in mine.  
We go back and hand over the bag with potions to the half-orcs.

"Tell us where we can find Orriseid." Wägtell holds grip of the bag until they answer the question. The half-orc tugs a bit at the bag but notices Wägtell holds the bag too firm to pull it free.

"He's at the barracks over there." The half-orc points to a building on the opposite side of the crossroad.

"Thank you." I speak for Wägtell while he releases the bag.

With cats grace I sneak up the stairs of the barracks in which Orriseid should be hiding. The building is broad but only one floor high. However that one floor is elevated from the ground by a man-size layer of concrete, so the only way in is taking the stairs leading up. I keep myself low from the windows and close to the walls until I come to a door. I listen to the door but hear nothing. I signal the others to come up quietly. Once they are up we set us up in two groups, each at a door hinge. Alonso and Pippa stand left, Wägtell and I stand on the right side. Asfer stands somewhat back keeping an eye on the rear. There is still that stalker lurking around, the thought of getting a well placed knife in your back is not exactly the thing I would catalogue as welcome.  
Alonso places his hand on the doorhandle, turns it, and pushes the door slowly open.  
In only a second of time crossbow bolts are humming past our ears and others made a dull impact sound on the wooden door. We press our selves back against the wall out of the line of fire.

"Bloody hell! They have one of those automatic launchers!" Alonso says.  
I ready an arrow, pull it back and jump in front of the doorway. I release the string the moment I see guy operating the large swing at the large deployable crossbow—which is standing in the middle of the small room. In a straight path the arrow flies right through his throat. Gargling in his own blood he falls over the repetitive launcher. Alonso runs inside but is caught by surprise, a man behind the door waves a dagger at him. Alonso is now engaged in a deadly struggle while I see there is a second person near the repetitive launcher—who now grabs his personal crossbow. I don't give him that chance, he drops motionless with an arrow through his heart. Alonso stabs the dagger in the chest of his aggressor, who now—clenching to Alonso—slowly slides down on his back over the wall.  
We hurry us inside, and find the room has two doors, one at the left, one at the right. Wägtell and Pippa will check out the left door, Alonso and I will check out the right. Alonso and I open our door first, we gaze inside and at the centre of the room we see a person standing motionless—wearing a green and yellow robe together with a most oddly designed helmet. Two metal shapes were on each side, much like horns but flat like blades, branching in two opposite directions: up and down. With care we move in and ready ourselves for any possible attack, yet that mysterious person keeps standing there, not even blinking as if he would be in a trance.

"Lets take the advantage of first strike." Alonso speaks from between his teeth, while keeping one eye on our mysterious 'friend' with his odd taste for fashion.

"No, just wait." I order Alonso—although I don't like giving orders, this just felt too wrong, "check out the room if you can find something."  
Alonso hesitates a moment but begins his investigation of the bookcase—the only noteworthy feature of the room, besides the window and another door.

"Nothing!" Alonso says, "and I still think we should kill him before he wakes from his trance."

"No! I have a bad feeling about it. We should _not_ touch him. Lets wait for the others."  
Impatiently Alonso walks to the door we came from, that moment Wägtell, Pippa and Asfer come walking in.

"What's that?" Pippa asks, pointing at the unanimated circus act.

"Stay here, and keep close watch on him. I'll go check out the other door."

The door is not locked, carefully I open it, ready to dodge whatever may come flying out. Nothing flies out. There is a man standing in the small room. Dressed in a full plate mail carrying a heavy hammer. He grins at me, obviously he had been expecting us.

"Orriseid!" I say, testing if this man would respond to the name, and I walk in. I notice there is the same cartoon coloured duplicate standing near the window of the guy in the other room. However this one's not unanimated as the other one. Instead, this one is _not_ the duplicate, this one turns around to face me in silence.

"I would like to talk with you," I continue. The man—who's most likely Orriseid—stares at me with an even more evil grin than before, his eyes are saturated with blood.

"Would you care to—" I try to say when—before I realised—Orriseid strikes me with his hammer on my head. For a second I think I see the universe with entire solar systems and galaxies. Then nausea takes over and I stagger backwards, try to find a hold to keep my balance. I look at the figure with the odd helmet—or should I say: at one of them, because I see five. There are five of them now, this is too ridicule.  
_That must have been a serious blow to the head_, I ponder—so far it doesn't hurt. I see the rest run into the room, I drag myself to the table standing at the opposite side of the room and decide to climb on it.  
_So much for my heroism_, I think. My brain feels like pressurised jelly, ready to pop out through my ears. I probe the top of my head, just to check if I'm not suffering from a gaping wound.  
In the meantime Alonso is playing the game called who-is-it with the five identical looking images. The game mechanics are simple: hack at an image and see if it disappears.  
Wägtell takes his chances with Orriseid.

"It doesn't have to end like this, Orriseid!" I yell. He looks at me with that same wicked grin and lands his hammer on Wägtell.  
_Damn, I should do something about my diplomacy skill_, I sigh.  
Asfer steps in, her cape waving behind her making her look even more pompous than Orriseid in his tin can.

"Hold!" she shouts, extending her hand towards Orriseid. Magical chains appear around Orriseid and his body goes rigid.

_Hoeray… Asfer saves the day_, mentally I wave my flag of sarcasm. Meanwhile Alonso finished his game and discovered the one and only true freak. It did take him four tries. The mage—that's what I presume he is—steps back and bumps into the wall. I grab an arrow, place it on my bow and jump off the table next to Alonso.

"Meskar cha tesh demar!" the mage commands me, pointing with the palm of his hands. I remembered that command word from Pippa, I nod my head with a slight smile. He should've paid more attention in class, then he'd known that sleep spells don't work on elves. I raise my bow, but instead I got the mage's gauntlet in my face.

_Again the head_, I sigh and check my nose.  
Alonso kills the mage and I turn around to see how the others are doing with Orriseid. Both Asfer and Wägtell are trying to get Orriseid out of consciousness. I remember the rope I'm carrying, if the spell would wear off before he's subdued he still would have a rope to break through. I take it from my bag and do my best to get it around Orriseid. I try to tie the knot and Orriseid's magical shackles fall off, he kicks at me and tries to break free.

"Wägtell, help me to tighten it, I can't hold him alone." I ask. Wägtell grabs the two ends of the rope and lashes them together without any problem. Orriseid falls to his knees unconscious as Asfer hits him hard another time. His pretty face isn't so pretty anymore.

"Back off!" Asfer commands us to take several steps back. I don't know what hit the hardest, Orriseid hammer or Asfer's words. I take my steps back, but Wägtell isn't so willingly, he's holding his feet down. I could swear I hear him growl for a moment.

"Yield!" Asfer shouts at Wägtell. All went quiet all of a sudden, Wägtell looks from underneath his heavy eyebrows and takes a few steps back. Asfer takes a knife from her belt and cuts my rope.  
_That's _my_ rope!_ I feel an urge to shout it out but decide to keep my mouth shut. Asfer takes Orriseid's armour out and together with his hammer she puts it in a large bag. From her backpack she takes a pair of handcuffs and locks them around Orriseid's wrists.

"Eek!" Pippa releases a shriek.

"Hello, Pippa." Comes a familiar voice. I turn around and see Yaeri standing in the room.

"He just came visible before my eyes!" Pippa says astonished to which Yaeri had to smile. "How?"

"Here's the deal," Yaeri begins his tale. "Back in the palace, the wizard took me to his office and explained to me I had a special assignment. He would cast a permanent invisibility on me—which would hold as long as I take no action that would reveal myself of course—and I had to travel with you but with the concealment."

"So you were the one who threw the rock at me?"

"Yes" Yaeri chuckles.

"And the snapping branch?"  
Yaeri nods. Pippa must not know whether to hug him or slap him.

"My instructions were simple," Yaeri continues. "I was the plan B. In case you screwed up I had to assassinate Orriseid with this dagger. The Queen knew _if_ we failed to capture him, we also would not be able to kill him."

"Then why did _we_ have to come along?" Pippa asks.  
I had heard enough. I don't know if I should feel hurt, offended or glad perhaps? I run outside for fresh air, four blows to the head is too much to handle. I stop at the balustrade half way of the stairs, letting my elbows rest on it and I stare out into nothing.

_What to think? – Where to begin I mean._

_I mean I thought we were hired for our competence? – It seems I thought wrong. We were hired for the bunch of clowns we are.  
_

_Then, was Asfer the one with the real mission? – Yes it seems so, Asfer… and Yaeri._

_Asfer could easily handle it by herself, but why send us along with her? – I have no clue how to answer that.  
But I do know this: Asfer never believed in us either—not that I could blame her from time to time—I bet she considered us a pain in the ass. She didn't even trust us. I'm sure she wished she hadn't have to put up with us._

_And clearly, they had more trust in a halfling thief than in any other of us._

_I don't know what to think._

_I don't know how to feel._

_Angry? – Angry for Asfer's arrogance, how she treated us like scum a few moments ago._

_Sad? – Perhaps a bit._

_Humiliated, that's what I feel the most. Humiliated by all this. The truth about what we are. If only I could prove what I'm worth…_

_I feel…_

_I don't care. – Why should I care?_

_I don't care anymore. Let Asfer carry Orriseid back by herself._

I snap from my thoughts and noticed the others have come outside arguing about who's going to carry Orriseid. I won't have anything to do with it, I go down the stairs and walk to the horse stables. Yaeri follows me close.

I reach the horse stables and throw my stuff on my mount, strapping it on tight. I see Yaeri climbing on hir riding dog and set off to the extending desert plain. I sigh and give my horse some hay before we go, though I'm not planning on following Yaeri—or anybody else.  
The sun is getting real low, throwing an orange-red hue over the world. In a hustle I hear the others near the stables.

"Neely?" Pippa calls my name. I glance back and see the little gnome approaching. I throw her a small forced smile while I climb on my horse. I hope she won't take me leaving personal.  
I tag my horse with my heels and he jump-starts in gallop. Through the tent pavilion out in the desert plain I ride in the last warm rays of the setting sun.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**

* * *

Silver Glass**

Many hours after sunset I reach the borders of the forest. Riding in the light of moon and stars is one thing, riding under the dark roof of the forest is another. I'll have to be careful, at night the forest troll leaves it's nest and hunts for human flesh. I decide to press on with all my senses sharp, because I know I'll reach the wemix village in little time.

Only here and there, a tiny ray of moonlight pierces the thick leaved ceiling. The forest is less chilly then the open desert yet this environment would make you shiver more. In a steady trot I follow the road leading deeper in the forest.  
Without giving a command my horse halts, turn his ears for and back, scanning the area carefully. He takes a step back and anxiously he starts pounding the ground with one hoof.

"Easy, what is it boy?"  
He takes a few more steps back and rears up, both his legs stamping air. Then several red dots appear around me—like eyes in pairs—glowing and coming closer. My horse neighs and stamps the ground harder, trying to intimidate whatever is closing us in. A solid black shape flashes through the nearest shaft of moonlight. Fear grasps at me like two hands around my throat. I spur my horse forward and in a big leap he starts galloping. With heavy and deep panting breath he runs through the obscure woods. His extensive leaps are no match for the lurking creatures. A pair of red glowing eyes appear close to the road, vanish again, to appear once more right in our path in the middle of the road. Neighing, my horse halts brusque and starts rearing at the creature.

_Only one this time, I might be able to take him out. As long as his friends don't show up all of a sudden.  
_I draw one sword from it's sheath and hold it ready to strike. With this, the two ruby eyes are gone, vanished, disappeared. I look around to see if they hadn't appeared somewhere else again, but not a trace of the ruby eyes were to be seen. I feel my heart pound hard and fast while a cool breeze blows through the forest. A barely audible sound of running water in the far distance catches my attention.

_The river, I'm closer to the wemix village then I thought.  
_With my heels I tap the flanks of my horse, commanding him to move forward fast, I'm not staying here a minute longer.

I reach the old monastery ruins which are now shaded in blue moonlight. Besides the large tree overgrowing the left side of the ruins there aren't any other trees that drop their shadow on it. The wrecked cart is still laying where it was when we set out a week ago. I halt and descend from my horse. Guiding by the reins I lead him off the road, out of sight. After I give him a gentle pat on his neck I turn myself around and head for the staircase leading to the underground village. The wemix guard greets me,

"Welcome back stranger. What brings you to our village?"

"I'm here to speak your priestess again."

"Proceed, you know the way," the one guard—who stands closest to the staircase—says to me and offers me entrance.

"Thank you. Say, could you keep an eye on my horse upstairs? I would not like to have that one stolen too."

"I don't know, but, I think I could," with his catlike features he smiles graciously at me. I bow at him, make my way underneath the arc of the entrance and set foot into the village. The path leads me to the residence of the Priestess Alruaa.

I stop at her door—which I've never ever seen closed—and carefully enter her house. The woven strands of pearls hanging in the doorway give away my entering.

"Welcome child, I knew you were coming." She looks up from her scrolls and smiles. Once again she has astonished me. She gestures to the pillows at the other side of the table.

"Please, take a seat," she says and grabs for a silver glass teapot standing on the right of the table. "Would you care for some tea?"  
I place my self on her colourful pillows and gladly accept her offer with a nod.

"So, what is the matter? You look troubled," she begins while filling a silver glass cup in front of me. I shrug and sigh, lift the cup and carefully put it against my lips to take a little sip. The hot tea has the sweet aroma of peaches. The priestess looks at me with compassionate eyes.

"I don't know," I answer after a long silence. "It's… it's like sometimes I feel—" I stop and sigh.

"Your eyes tell me enough," she rearranges herself on her pillow. "These are hard times for everybody. Most go about their own business, doing their own thing. You shouldn't take people's reactions too personal. Little do they know about you."

"But, I wish they could see what I can do."

"My child, the ones who do are the ones who needs to see it. You should not be too bothered by those who only see what you can not do."  
_If only I could do more… _

Inviting, Alruaa extends her cat like hand, "Come here, give me your hand."  
I slowly lay my hand in hers.

"Some people find it by themselves, for others it is to be taught, and then there are the few that have always known it." She says while holding my hand. "Do you know what I'm talking about, my child?"  
I look confused by the riddle, trying to figure _it_ out.

"Just like my hand, it's waiting for you to reach out for it. It's what you _can_ do that is waiting for you."

"How can I do what I can do?" I ask the Priestess.

"Well, that is up to you, my dear."

"Can you teach me?"

"Do you have faith in your goddess?" she fills my cup again with tea.

"Yes, but what—"

"Do you speak to her?"  
_I'm not sure what to answer the priestess. I know I'm not the type that constantly talks to her goddess. Mostly because it's just a monologue. _I sip again from my tea, even if it's just to stale some time.

"So, do you?"

"Sometimes," I try to answer her with honesty.

"Perhaps you should ask her the same question you asked me."  
I nod in understanding.

"Now, let us both get some sleep, it has been a long day for me," and Alruaa gets up from her pillows. "You could sleep here if you like." She picks up a blanket and lays it next to me. "We will talk about it further in the morning."

"Thank you."

"It is my pleasure, dear." She smiles and leaves the room with no sound but the soft rustling of her cloths.

_Talk to my goddess._

_Ask her to teach me._

_Teach me what?_

_What I can._

_How can I ask her to teach me what I don't know?_

_What can I?_

_My goddess Mielikki, if only I could tell._

_Help me find someone who understands me._

It's the second day and I'm awakening again in the same light condition as before. it's quite disorienting, hard to guess how long you have slept. I wonder how the wemix manage to keep track of time living in an underground village. I get up, fold Alruaa's blanket and put it aside. The table holds the silver glass teapot and a silver glass cup. The teapot is filled with steaming tea and the silver plate—next to it—holds some slices of honey bread. I have a quick breakfast and go check outside, where everybody is about their daily stuff.

"Good morning child." Alruaa says and walks toward me.

"Good morning." I greet her back.

"I hope you had a good rest."

"Yes I did, thank you."

"Very well," Alruaa pauses and I look at her with surprise for the sudden hesitation and the pondering look on her face.

"Have you considered the suggestion I made yet?"  
I'm not sure if she means her suggestion to ask my goddess to teach me.

"Do you mean talk to my goddess?" I glance from the corners of my eyes to see if anyone would be overhearing our conversation. Not that I feel embarrassed, only I strongly feel that's something personal, personal between me and the priestess. She nods to my question.

"Well I… I tried," I continue. "But I felt it was hard to ask for anything. I mean, I didn't know what to ask." I sigh and stare at the sandy floor.

"Well dear," she chuckles and grabs my arm, "there is something you need to see." By my arm she escorts me to the staircase leading back up—to the ruins. I can't help but notice that even on these ochre sandy stones she isn't making any sound, even a whisper would sound louder next to her steps. The soft morning sunrays fill our faces when we reach the surface. One of the guards stands on the watch and keeps an eye on my horse which has noticed me coming up from the stairs. With an elegant hustle it comes to me. Alruaa hands me over some hay and pushes my hands forward clearly wanting me to offer it to him. My horse comes, stands still and kneels in front of me. I can't believe what I'm seeing and I look full of surprise to the Priestess.

"Go on! What are you waiting for?" She gives me a soft push in the back. I walk towards my horse and place myself in the saddle. Grasping his manes firmly I try to stay in saddle while he gets up. I'm still somewhat confused by it.

"You still have to name him, you know," the priestess reminds me. I think for a moment, searching for something elegant but strong, something loyal yet mysterious.

"Nightwish," I whisper and he pivots his ears to the back as if hearing my whisper.

"Now go! And don not forget, talk to your goddess," the priestess says. "She can grant more then you already know."

I nod in understanding.

"Thanks," I say as final word and at full speed I ride away, with Cimbar as destination.

**

* * *

The Gathering of Clouds**

Once arrived at Cimbar I make my way to the Queens palace. I leave Nightwish at the outer yard within the palace walls and head for the stairs leading to the throne room. The two guards—each wielding a long spear and dressed in a royal armour—grant me entrance as soon as I'm near the huge doors.  
The queen looks up, sitting on her throne accompanied by her councillors. Though I notice this time that Asfer is not standing at her side, instead there is a tall half-elf. He looks proud and confident, pale of skin and light of hair. He's holding a weird shaped staff which has a few small ruby's incorporated in the headpiece. His cloths are all similar to each other in colour and fabric, a light lavender with violet and purple designs on it.

"So you've come at last. Your friends were clueless on your whereabouts." The Queens addresses me.

"My apologies, I had business to attend to." I reply and bow my head slightly, but all Melisanda returns is her best poker face.

"I've left your reward with one of your friends. I take four gems and a hundred platinum pieces should cover any expense you'd have encountered?"

"Thank you," I direct myself again to the Queen, "there is a small request I'd like to make."  
In contrast with her earlier poker face, she looks at me with surprise and gestures me to speak.

"If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to keep the horse." I feel my cheeks run red for not knowing whether my request would be appropriate or not. "He's been a trustworthy ally to me."

"Consider your request granted," she says. "Anything else?"

"No, that will be all."

She gestures me out and removes her attention from me. As for me, I'll go look for the others.

"Avast, me hearty!" a voice shouts while I'm strapping some equipment on my horse. I turn around and find Alonso approaching from the outer yard's entrance.

"Ye had us worried, lass!"

"Alonso, it's good to see you!" I laugh. "And I'm deeply sorry if I had you all worried."

"Aye, sorry ye'll be after I'm done with ye!" he says and draws his rapier, pointing it at me. But shortly after he burst in laughter, sheaths his rapier and welcomes me with open arms.

"Let's go, the rest is at the Prancing Okapi," he says. "oh right and this is yours." He tosses me a small bag, which holds four gems and a bunch of platinum pieces.

"A hundred platinum pieces," he says whispering looking around him through the corners of his eyes, "and four gems each worth about a thousand gold pieces. Ye'd be wanting to keep a close eye on those."

"Thanks! I'll go do some shopping now." And I return him a wink as secretly as his. Alonso laughs out loud. I wonder—no I hesitate—to give him hug but I decide to do so.

"Easy lass! No wrinkling the vest."  
I let go and laugh for his ever concern for his appearance. Never have I seen a pirate so fashion-conscious.

"Then I'll see you all at the inn," I say and with my horse on the reins I leave the palace's outer yard.

After the few hours looking for the right shop and the right stuff I return to the inn "The Prancing Okapi". The noise from inside the building already invites me in before I even open the door. Once I'm inside I find Pippa and Alonso—both are standing at the bar, discussing something—as well as Yaeri and Wägtell—who are sitting at a table near the corner.

"Neely!" comes the voice of Pippa and she runs towards me, "you're back!"

"Hey Pippa!" I respond, also full of delight in seeing the ever-dynamic gnome again.

"Don't you _ever_ leave us like that again!" she stamps a foot down angry while putting her two clenched fists at her side.

"Excuse me, my lady. It won't happen again." And I smile broadly while making an exaggerated low bow.

"Good, that's more like it," she giggles. "Say, do you have a new outfit? You look a bit different."

"I have, do you like it?" I turn around and show my new leather armour—decorated with some small gems around the chest—from all sides.

"Aye, fancy looking I'd say," Alonso—who had been watching from the bar—comes to stand next to Pippa.

"Oh, this reminds me…" I tell him and grab for my stuff I placed at the floor. Next to my bag lies another studded armour which I had kept for Alonso, it's the one from our trip to Airspur.

"Here, I've saved this one for you, I hope it fits you." And I hand over the leathers to Alonso.

"Ah, many thanks me hearty!" Alonso gratefully accepts the gift and gives it a close eye inspection.

"So..." Pippa taps her foot, "I think it's now about time you tell us where you've been hanging?"  
_Damn, I better spit something out now_. I think.

"Well I… I had promised the wemix priestess a report on the events."

"I didn't know she asked that? Besides that couldn't have taken you two days right?"  
_No fooling Pippa_, I realise.

"She… also taught me a trick."

"A trick! Now that's interesting! Please, show us." Pippa starts to wiggle on her legs out of excitement.  
_Now I've done it. She wants to see a trick._

"I can… make plants move with my thoughts!"  
They all watch me in disbelieve, clearly not taking my bluff. All but Pippa, she is watching me with intensive and anticipating eyes. It's the first time I notice how pink her irises are.

"There," I point to a plant—the only plant—in the room. A poor excuse for a plant though, small and withered in a stone pot placed at the window. Pippa gazes at the motionless plant. The others decide to watch too, just to assure their right in not believing me justified. But against everyone's expectation the plant suddenly moves. The plant's upper body wriggles and closes on it's self like a fist clenching for something.  
There is a moment of silence amongst the five of us, not even I could believe my own eyes.

"That's a neat trick!" Pippa jumps up and breaks the silence, "I'm curious what else can you do?"  
That moment the barkeeper sounds his little bell.

"Hey folks! Dinner's ready!" he yells.

"I should go make my order," I say and haste myself to the bar but by the time I arrive the big barkeeper is gone again to his kitchen—probably getting the dishes. Meanwhile I look back at the weird withered plant at the window.  
_That couldn't have been me, that's just a fluke_, I think.

"That's a Swamp Mouth," the big barkeeper says from behind me.

"Excuse me?"

"The plant, it's a Swamp Mouth. It catches flies with it's mouth to slowly digest them, once inside. A remarkable plant and very exotic."

"Oh I see!"

"So, what will it be for you, missy?"

"A salad with some fresh vegetables will do fine."

It's the next day at breakfast that a man escorted by two guards enters the inn. All three formally dressed in the military code of Cimbar and in the old imperial style. The man himself wears a fancy full plated armour with a richly decorated helm carried underneath his left arm. He's a bit taller then the average man in this region and his skin is a bit less tanned.

"Captain Alexander," the man introduces himself. "We have met before."  
We look up from our plates—I with surprise for I haven't met him before but the others seem to know him—wondering what errand brings one of Cimbar's captains to us.

"I carry a message from the Queen," he says when he got all of our attention. "First of all I'm happy to announce the Queen was pleased with the completion of your previous assignment, and therefore she will offer the lot of you another job. Second, as you know of the death of our former Mayor Philo, his temporary successor shall give you a full briefing at the city hall. This be the end of the message."  
The man tucks his parchment away.

"Until we meet again," he says and turns his heels to leave the building. His two guards follow him closely.

"That sounded more like a statement then a request," I say the moment the three are gone.

"Aye, but as long it pays well I'm up for it," Alonso replies with a broad smile.

"Then we're on adventure again!" Pippa cheers.

"I wouldn't be cheering to soon Pippa," I respond to the gnome's impatient behaviour, "we don't know what this job is yet."

"Well then lets go find out!" she says with a firm grin and brings her empty breakfast plate to the bar. She thanks the bartender for the delicious food and then puts on her backpack.

The five of us enter the city hall with it's creaking doors. The same giant chandelier is still hanging there threatening as well as the same four pillars and the banners on the wall. Only the desk at the back of the hall is different, and not only the desk also the employee behind it. There is a woman with dark pinned up hair sitting behind it, she must be in her late thirties. She watches us when we walk closer.

"Good day, you must be the company that has been summoned by the Queen?"

"We are, with no doubt," Alonso takes a step forward, and in a single gracious gesture he takes his tricorn in his right hand and bows before the woman.

"Very well," she says, "the Mayors office is to your right."  
We walk towards the door to the right with the guard next to it when Pippa whispers to us.

"Pssht guys, I need to tell you something."  
We look at her and I wonder what news she's going to tell us.

"You should know, this guy is a freak, I mean, really twisted in the head."

"What do you mean?" Alonso asks.

"The man has a giant bat hanging at his ceiling and—"  
That moment the door opens and a man—carrying a large and heavy bag over his shoulder—walks out heading for the exit in a straight line

"Well you're next," the guards says, "if you would leave any arms at the table here nearby I'd gladly take good care of them."  
As we been told we lay down our weapons at the guard's table and enter the mayors office. In contrast with former mayor Philo's office, this one is chill and cold. No decoration at all, even the glass showcase has been removed. A giant man stands at the window staring outside, clad in beast hides and furs with long dark raven black hair. Above him, from the ceiling, hangs a giant bat. I study the creature's features and I am startled all of a sudden by the most unexpected. The giant bat opens its dark eyelids and reveals two pitch black eyes. Scared by the hollowness I avert my gaze immediately.

"You never said it was alive!" I whisper to Pippa after poking her hard.

"Greetings." The giant man in his hides turns around from the window. "My name is Nicos Avaris."  
Though the man turned to show his face his eyes are not visible. A white sash is covering the region of his eyes, with both ends running to the back of his head to be tied firmly.

"Please, have a seat," says the man while there clearly are no chairs or what so ever in the room.

"The Queen has put her trust in you and your skill, therefore she has instructed me to explain you your next assignment."  
The man pauses and starts to pace up and down.

"Inevitably there are rumours amongst the people, some are true others are not. What I will tell you must stay between these four walls. War is coming, and Cimbar's enemies are growing while our list of allies is getting shorter. Even the recent incident with Orriseid has done serious damage to the secret alliance between Cimbar and Airspur. All this together with our growing shortage of weaponry is like the gathering of towering clouds at the horizon."  
He halts a moment as to concentrate on his thoughts.

"This alliance between Cimbar and Airspur must be restored, together with a new order for weapons. The Queen wants you for the job. She has given me two things which I was assigned to give."  
From his pockets he takes a paper and a glass orb.

"A form stating the details of the weapon order, and a sphere to contact the Queen if you should have need for any guidance with any complications you might encounter."  
He extends his hands offering both items to me.

"Good," he says when I relieved him of them. Again he starts to ponder about something.

"Is Asfer coming with us again?" Pippa asks the man.

"No, we haven't seen her yet, but we expect you won't have much trouble anyway." He pauses once more, waiting if any more questions would follow. "This concludes what I had to say. Good luck to you all."

**

* * *

Fragile Alliance**

Airspur has been fortified to the last brick, so to speak. The city walls are manned by bowmen and the large gate has been shut. Little traces remain of Cimbar's forces. The encampment before the gate has been removed to a point where only some rubbish and such mark something stood there. From above the gate one of the half-orc guards commands us to halt.

"What business!" he shouts from atop—according to Wägtell who translated the orcish words.

"Me good sir!" Alonso says with the best of his manners, "we've come to speak your ruler King Khrulis."

"Who are you to speak to our king!"

"We are sent by Queen Melisanda with a message."

The one half-orc yells something orcish to someone behind the walls at lower level. The gate rumbles and the left half opens—just enough for man and horse to pass through—itself on a slow pace.

"Smooth so far," Alonso smiles.  
We walk through the space between the two halves of the gate, to be immediately received by a dozen guards, all of half-orc breed and dressed in Airspur's military code—which I recognised from our visit a few days ago.

"We shall escort you to the palace!" one of the half-orcs says. These half-orcs always seem to have a temper on.  
In a file with six well armed guards at each side we march to the Kings palace.

Once we reach the throne room it shows King Khrulis has a most distasteful, disgusting and nauseating sense for decoration. The hall is filled with red, first the red carpet running from the entrance to his throne, red banners on the wall displaying a variety of symbols and icons. His windows are filled with red coloured glass that stains the room in a red hue. But most horrifying of all are the spiked corpses, put to display like a war trophy. Though I wonder what prevents the air of being fouled with the smell of rotting carcasses. I quickly remind myself I don't want to know and want to get going again as soon as possible. As we walk forth to King Khrulis' throne I notice a familiar face. One of the half-orcs is the one we encountered on our first visit, more specific the one who was so eagerly on telling to get them some potions in return for some information. Anyway, that doesn't matter now, we should get straight to business so we can leave fast.

"So…" Khrulis rumbles, "… Melisanda has sent more of her spies."  
He laughs and looks at his spiked war trophies.

"Melisanda has sent us with a plead for the existing peace and alliance between the two cities." I decide to take this conversation for a change.

"Peace!" his powerful voice rumbles through the hall almost infuriated, "she talks peace while she wields a sword and shield against me!"

"She is aware of that, yet the one responsible for the assault did not act on Cimbar's behalf. As we speak he is being put to trial for his betrayal."

"You amuse me, elf-woman!"

"Also she'd like to renew the weapon supply order."

"And how would we do that?" he laughs mockingly, "our forges are nothing more than rubble now! Even _we_ have to buy our weapons now!" he slams his giants fist at the armrest of his throne. "I've had enough of this!"

"Please, be so kind and tell us where to find weapons."

"Hmmm," he grumbles, "find Astilith far south of here in the mountain range. He sells weapons in great stock numbers. Once you reach the river, follow it upstream."

"Thank you." I give him a slight bow, "I hope Cimbar may count on you as an ally when tides of war batter against her."

"We shall see," Khrulis grumbles and laughs once more.  
We turn around to leave the throne room.

"Elf-woman," he shouts, "tell your Queen that for every spy she has in Airspur I have two in Cimbar."  
I halt and turn to face Khrulis once again.

"I'm sure she knows that." I reply him, to which Khrulis grins and says, "And does your Queen knows that Lutcheq is the only city who is _not_ having any troubles?"

"Melisanda is aware of many things. I'm sure she knows that too."  
Together with the rest I leave the throne room and we set course to Astilith in the far south mountain range.

As we ride south, through the dull desert of Chessenta with the mountain range visual to the west as our guide, not a life form is to be spotted but the occasional bird high in the blue sky. It's when the sun is touching the mountain peaks, ready to sink behind them with it's orange flames, that we find a cartwheel together with more splintered wood, what must have been the rest of the cart. There are a large amount of tracks around the splintered wood, all humanoid, and a bunch of them lead away from the rubble.

"I'm going to follow those tracks and see where they lead to," I tell the rest, "you should set up camp, this wood could be used to get a fire started."

"Hey!" Pippa protests. "Don't wander off alone, that's dangerous! I'm coming with you!"

"Alright… alright, I know I can't stop you anyway."

"Good!"

"But stay close to me, ok?"  
The tracks lead away a great distance, until they end near a small rock formation. Before the rocks stands a chest, a sturdy chest with metal work on it.

"Oh! A treasure chest!" Pippa cheers delightedly.

"Wait Pippa, don't you see those corpses?"  
Pippa nods.

"I wonder what killed these people."

"Well what ever it is it's not here, so lets open it!"

"No wait!" I grab her by the arm, "I once heard a story about a creature who likes to take shape of a treasure chest to lure careless treasure hunters, and when they are close enough and ready to open the chest they transform back to their real shape and slay their victims merciless."  
Pippa raises an eyebrow and takes a step closer to the chest.

"No Pippa, we should just leave it here."

"Leave the treasure? Na-ah." Pippa pulls her arm free and places both hands on the chest. She lifts the top and swings it back. I notice how I hold my breath and have my hand ready on my sword. Nothing happens.

"Hey Neely, this is something for you, there's a blue bow with some arrows in it."

"I can't carry anymore stuff, so just leave it there."

"What? Then I'll carry it, too good to leave it here."  
I shrug and Pippa tucks away the bow and the arrows in her Handy Haversack—that's what I heard her call it, it's much like my quiver I bought in Cimbar with the Queens reward. Items like those have a larger interior dimension than the exterior dimension. I don't know how they do it but I try not to ask too many questions about the powers of magic.

"Lets go back to the rest." I suggest to Pippa.

We find Wägtell and Yaeri already knocked out in their bedrolls and Alonso keeping guard.

"So lassies, did ye find anything?"

"We sure did!" Pippa answers the merry pirate with a smile. With her backpack on the ground she takes out the blue bow and the arrows—which were more like pointy gnarled branches then streamlined arrows.

"Funny looking arrows ye got there lass," Alonso laughs with the crude projectiles.

"They could be magical," I ponder out loud.

"Well lets find out." Pippa arranges the bow and arrows tidy in front of her. With a giggle she wriggles her fingers and extends her hands, hovering them above the items. Besides concentration and a magic word that's all it takes for Pippa to see if something has a magical aura or not.

"Hmm, interesting…" Pippa says almost on a humming way, "… those arrows are…"

"Yes?"

"…totally rubbish." She giggles and opens her eyes again, "the blue bow on the other hand _is_ magical."  
She hands over both the bow and the arrows. I shove the blue bow in the extra bow dimension of my quiver.

"Well I won't be needing those…" I say and throw the arrows in the bonfire.

"Neely?" Pippa stares at me, "what did you just do?"

"What do you mean?"

"You threw the magical arrows in the fire!"

"What? You said the bow was magical?"

"Did I? Oh my…"

"You got to be kidding me!"

"I am!" Pippa bursts out laughing and rolls over the sand.

"Ooh… when I get my hands on you, you pesky…" I try to grapple her, "you'll wish you'd locked yourself in a closet!"

The screaming of Pippa startles us all out of our sleep.

"Hey ho lass, what's the matter?" Alonso tries to calm a clearly shocked Pippa.

"I had another dream," she says staring at us one by one.

"You mean like you had before?" I ask.  
She nods and says, "and much worse this time."

"I saw a swamp," she begins her story, "a swamp with some weird creatures, much like hyenas walking up straight, at wooden barracks. Immediately after, I saw Orriseid and his men charging that place. They ran into the barrack at the centre, the largest one, through that hall to the room at the end. There was a man standing there, though I couldn't see his face because he was standing with his back to me. But then he turns around…"  
Pippa's sudden silence sends shivers up my spine.

"…all lit up in fire and filled my view. The next thing I woke up screaming."  
We all gaze at Pippa, the sound of wind rasping the sand and the dying bonfire is all that fills this moment. A tear of overwhelming emotion escapes from Pippa's eye and runs down her cheek to her chin, ready for a free fall to the sand where it shall be formed to a gritty pearl.

"I'm sorry to have woken you," she says sincere and crawls back in her sleeping bag.

"It's okay," I say and give her a hug.

The next day we reach the river running from the mountains through the forest we entered a half hour ago. This forest is less dense then the one near Cimbar—the one where the wemix are. High tree tops filter the rays of the midday sun filling the forest with a tranquil ambient.

"I heard a shriek!" tells Wägtell and halts his horse.

"Help me!" a woman's voice calls, or wait, it's a man's voice. We look up and see a slender young man standing behind of the nearest bush. Only his naked torso and face are visible to us.

"They ran off with my clothes…" he says, "… and my bird."  
Although this must be really embarrassing for the young man I still find it almost uncontrollable to laugh.

"Aye mate, seems they really got ye."

"Oh it was terrible! Three of them, and all at once!"  
The young man comes from behind his bush, fortunately less naked then he appeared to be, in underwear.

"Please, kind man," he walks towards Alonso and blushes, "would you want to go find my clothes… and my bird?"  
He almost throws himself against Alonso mounted on his donkey.

"Eh, keep your distance, lad." Alonso tries to shake him off.

"Sure we'd like to help," I reply, "won't we, Alonso? Where did _'they'_ go?"

"I could show you, but could I have a ride with you?" He looks at Alonso, "I don't think I can walk this dirty ground anymore."

"I don't think so," Alonso says to the young man, "you can ride with Neely."

"Eh, Alonso, I already have Pippa as second rider."  
Alonso turns his head to Wägtell who occupies all the space on his horse with gear and his own weight. Then he turns to look at Yaeri mounted on hir riding dog, also clearly not able to carry another rider.

"Okay okay," Alonso sighs, "but keep your hands off me, ye… ye."  
Clumsy, the young man climbs behind Alonso on the donkey.

"Oh what a great coat you have, sir!" he says to our slightly irritated pirate. Alonso mutters.  
Following the directions of the young man, we set off.

He leads us to a cave opening of which a display is planted in front the entrance, next to a giant ogre with a massive club.

"Does anyone know what it says?" I ask when I see the funny looking symbols which are painted with black paint in a crude handwriting together with a crude drawn smiling face.

"Beware Of WasLief!" Pippa translates the sign,  
"It's goblin." She explains to us what language it is.

"That's where they went into!" the young man points to the cave, "all three of them."

"Those bandits live in a cave guarded by an giant ogre?" Alonso stares at the caves opening.

"No," the young men replies, "no men! They are like hairy scary doggy monsters!"

"They are what?" Alonso says shocked.

"You know, big and ugly and they look like giant dogs, or perhaps bears, walking on their back legs."  
After I dismount I take Pippa from my saddle and put her on the solid ground.

"I better stay with the horses," the young man scratches his head.

"Good idea," Alonso replies him after he got off his donkey and straightened his coat.  
The five of us carefully walk to the giant ogre.

"Hi there," Pippa greets him, "how's the weather up there?"  
But the giant ogre doesn't seem to respond.

"Hello!" she shouts waving her arm.  
This time the ogre did hear her and looks at her.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"WasLief," he pounds his chest, "guards cave!"

"Oh I see, and what's in the cave?"

"Masters" he says, "Masters take care of WasLief!"

"Who are masters?" Pippa speaks slow and tries to use the same simple language to the not so bright looking ogre.

"Masters small! Small like you!"

"Can we talk to masters?"

"Hmmm," the ogre hums and thinks hard. "Difficult! WasLief must guard cave."

"Why do master want you to guard the cave?"

"Hmmm," it takes WasLief an even longer time now to think, "Difficult!" he says at last, "Masters kind! Masters give WasLief water and food."

"Oh but we have this," Pippa takes a loaf of bread from her backpack and her water skin.

"WasLief not hungry, WasLief wants water."

"Here, you take it" and Pippa offers her waterskin.  
WasLief looks with great suspicion to the waterskin and says,

"No water! Water blue!"  
_Blue water?_ I think and come up with a plan.

"Is this the blue water?" I take one healing potion—which has a light blue hue—from my bag.

"Blue water!" he smiles with amazement.

"It's yours if you let us in."

"Too small! WasLief really thirsty! But WasLief must guard cave." He grabs his club more firmly than before and stands straight like a worthy guard.

We all ponder the situation, when Pippa makes a suggestion.

"Yaeri, do you feel like becoming invisible?" she says with a broad grin on her face.

"Sure," Yaeri shrugs and Pippa touches the halfling with the tip of her finger. In an eye blink Yaeri vanished from sight and with a puzzled look WasLief gazes around himself not believing his own eyes. After a minute or so there's a light spark further on in the dark cave, a turbulent and dancing glow—such that is cast by fire—now slowly moves deeper in the cave to later on turn behind a corner and to leave the space behind WasLief in darkness.

Alonso yawns, it's been a while since Yaeri went into the cave and WasLief is not the type that knows how to entertain his guests.

"I should go check it out too," I say when getting bored of the waiting. By this Pippa stretches her arm and touches me with her finger. I had never experienced the effect of invisibility before. I feel the same, besides the excitement, and at first sight you'd think the spell didn't work. Even when I raise my hand in front of me I can still see it, as so the things I'm wearing. But it's only when you look at the others and see their reaction when they try to picture your location—but actually only stare through you—that's when you realise you really vanished from their sight.

I walk past a-once-more-flabbergasted WasLief and explore the deep darkness of the cave. With carefully chosen steps I follow the curving wall. I count two cave rooms branching left from the tunnel I'm walking through. The first one stinks unimaginable—a horse stable would be a joy compared to this—while in the second one—containing three flat haystacks which most likely are being used as beds—I found Yaeri. He must have heard me, because as soon as I take a peek in that room the turbulent glow that is emitted from his invisible torch is put out and all goes dark. I decide not to bother him in the room and to check out the rest of the cave. For what is the rest of the cave, it's a mere turn to the right and the tunnel emerging in a large room illuminated by torchlight. Also this room is as crude as the others, furniture is improvised with tree-stumps and bit of hay is scattered across the ground. Three shapes stand—with their back turned to me—near a table, they are much like the description of the young man: hairy dog or bear like creatures, but these don't fit the image I held in my head. Moving closer and to the other side of the room gives me a better point for description. While I imagined them more animal like, they are in fact quite humanoid. But beauty was not given to them at birth, their ugly hairy face with big goblin ears and the black doglike nose could make them an excellent cast for a bogeyman.

_If somehow I could lure them away then I could take a look at the chest standing at the backend of the room_, I think.

A silly idea comes to my mind. Silly, but it might prove to be effective. Tiptoe-ed I walk to the other table-end and with the flat of my hands I start drumming it hard. The rumbling sounds frighten the creatures, full of fear they start to look around them and grab for their spiked clubs. The biggest of them—the chief I'd say—snarls something to his comrades and the two others leave the room.

_Hmm, there is still the large one_, I ponder.

But then he releases a horrible scream, a scream filled with pain. Behind him stands Yaeri, holding a blood coated short sword firm and up high. The big creature turns around and lifts his spiked club ready to land it on Yaeri's little halfling head.

I hesitate not, and fire a well aimed arrow in the back of the creature. With a loud thud he falls dead on the floor.

"Yaeri, check the chest," I suggest and Yaeri runs to the chest. From the wooden chest s'he draws some clothes, boots and a birdcage holding a grass green bird.

"We should get going now," I tell hir.  
The one bowl with fire—illuminating the room—dies out that moment.

"Neely," Yaeri squeaks scared, "I can't see!"

"Don't worry, take my hand, I'll guide you out,"

"No, I can't do it!" Yaeri jams in freight.

"I'll carry you then, jump on my back. Please, we got to go!" I urge hir.  
The instant s'he is on my back I start making for the exit. We don't get too far, only a few feet from me I spot the two others running towards me with held up club. Yaeri gasps in fear and jumps of my back when a spiked club shredded the air besides me. While grabbing my swords I dodge the blow of the second one. With much anger and rage they swing at me again and again until one of them hits me and smack me to the floor. Both weapons are knocked out of my hands. Then, a red glow emerges from behind the two and three projectiles hit the first of the hairy creatures and with a shriek he falls over. The other looks startled at his dead friend while a second red glow emerges from far in the cave tunnel and again three red glowing projectiles make their way to the second creature. He tumbles back to the side wall of the tunnel.

"Pippa one, Bugbears zero!" the black silhouette sheers when it comes walking closer.

"This is the second time you saved my life, little one." I laugh with relief and get back on my feet. Pippa grins and walks to the—what she called bugbear—lying against the wall breathing heavily.

"So what did you call these? Bugbears?" I ask her.

"Yes, bugbears. A large type of goblin, with little manners."  
She kicks away the spiked club of the badly injured bugbear and bends over him.

"That's not a nice thing to do, stealing clothes and birds." She says to the bugbear in the goblin tongue. "Consider yourself lucky you didn't share the same fate as your friend."  
The bugbear looks at Pippa with frightened eyes.

"Now be a good boy from now on! And I don't want to have you stealing again. Oh and what's that blue water WasLief talks about?"

"The river, we let him drink from the river" he sobs.  
I look around for Yaeri and find hir huddled away with hir back flat against the wall. I take him with the arm and make him hop on my back again.

"What's wrong with Yaeri?" Pippa asks.

"Nothing…" I answer. "Halflings can't see in the dark nor in badly lit places, that's all."

"Oh, I didn't know that." Pippa frowns her lips.  
We head for the exit. WasLief stands gazing at us when we walk past him and into the open air again

"Masters?" he asks with great confusion.

"No, masters are gone now, WasLief." Pippa shouts to the confused dumb ogre.

"Gone?" he says anxiously, "WasLief needs masters for water!" He looks around not knowing what to do now.

"I'll give you blue water," Pippa says to which the anxious ogre looks up with pleasant surprise. "Come, lets go to blue water." She extends her hand like he would be a small child needing a hold. With his giant hand grasping Pippa's complete arm he runs to the river with giant leaps. Being much shorter on legs she hangs by WasLief's giant clutch and swings back and forth.

"Water!" he shouts, drops Pippa to the ground and plunges his face into the fresh water. With loud slurping he drinks from the cool water. Pippa stands up rubbing her bruised buttocks.

"New master kind!" WasLief says lifting his head from the water.

"No, you're free now, WasLief," Pippa replies.

"Free?" WasLief scratches his head.

"Yes, you can do what you want."

"WasLief wants to serve masters."

"We have to go, WasLief."  
WasLief looks disappointed when hearing those words. Pippa walks back to the rest of us and I help her on my horse.

"Goodbye WasLief, take care," she says.

It's by the end of the day when we reach Astilith's mining post. Hewn in the mountain face, the mining post stands within sight. Two wooden buildings are constructed against the rocky wall, both having guards stationed at it. Between those wooden buildings there is a gate like a mouth of a giant built in black stone. In the arc of the gate there are several runes carved in the surface, runes which are glowing fierce with a red light.  
A guard orders us to halt.

"We've come to make a weapon order," I say to the guard. He nods and bids us to follow him inside the mountain.  
We pass the rune gate and enter a room with wooden shores and wooden doors held in their wooden frames. The guard orders us to hand over all our weapons before we could enter.

"It's standard procedure," he explains and opens the door for us. We walk in and three men are standing there, two of them are bend over the table discussing some matter while the third one—one that is full covered in plating, not even his face or the slightest spot of skin is showing—just stands there. One of the two is dressed in a robe while the other wears a studded leather, they look up as we enter.

"What brings you here?" the man in studded leather asks looking at us with tired eyes, while the robed man takes a few steps back to the side of the sober looking room.

"We've come to order a weapon supply," I explain.

"You're not the first who has come to us. Though I'm afraid we'll have to send you away empty handed too."  
I draw a long sigh.

"Too?" Pippa interrupts.

"Yes, emissaries of Soorenar, also they seem to suffer from weapon shortage."

"Now that's interesting," Pippa tabs her lips with her index finger.

"Pardon me, but we've travelled all the way from Cimbar," I say, "dispatched with the orders of Melisanda herself, to Airspur but Khrulis sent us on his turn to you. We will _not_ return empty handed, at least tell us where we _can_ get weapons."

"You see, the thing is we're suffering from vermin in our mines, we've been unable to mine ore for weeks now, and thus not been able to forge any weapons."  
The vermin sounds all too familiar.

"What vermin do you speak of," I ask thinking about the story the others told me the night Mayor Philo died. The story of rust monsters in Cimbar's weapon deposits.

"Spiders, in all sizes," he answers. "We've already sent some mercenaries to clean it out but a few days later they were back. All of us are clueless on what the source is of this infestation."

"If we manage to get rid of the spiders _and _of the source, would you be willing to make us a weapon deal?"

"That sounds like a fair deal to me," he smiles.

"Then please tell us where we can find the mines and we'll be on our way next thing in the morning. If you don't mind, we'd like to spend the night in your hospitality?"

"Certainly, but I fear we have only poor accommodations to offer."

"And that's all we need," I say and bow my head slightly as thank.

"If you'd like to escort our guests to the barracks," he says to man at the door.

**

* * *

The Webbing**

Following the path Astilith had described to us—back downhill with the river at our side—we come to a wooden bridge after a long ride. Crossing it would take us on the path to the mines.

"Shouldn't we first check underneath the bridge in case another troll should be hiding out?" Pippa asks.

"I don't think a troll would fit underneath this bridge," I say looking down from my horse to the space underneath the bridge which could only hold a crouched human, not a big troll. "Come on, lets cross the bridge."  
A female dwarf comes towards us from behind a tree on our right. We hold our horses and stand still on the bridge.

"Hello there," I greet the dwarf without getting any response. Then I notice a second figure is sneaking through the bush on our left. While watching the human coming from his cover I see the dwarf draw an axe—which could be described as an axe with a blade on the front and a long spear point at the back—from her back. Taking her steps closer she holds her axe firm. Now the human draws his sword.

_Ambush!_ I think, but too late. The axe hits Nightwish in the chest, he rears up and I quickly grab for the reins and his manes. But poor Pippa is caught unprepared and is tossed back to meet the floor with a hard landing.

_If only Nightwish would knock that stupid dwarf down!_ I hope his instincts tells him to do that. But he panics instead and tries to move backwards, only to bump into a mounted Wägtell who stands right behind me. Pippa tries her best not to be trampled and rolls aside to seek shelter from the many crushing hooves. Going back may not be the answer, then forward it is. I draw my sword and give the knee command. Passing the dwarf, she swings again at the legs of Nightwish, and even as I tried to fend off the blow she strikes him a second time at the right shoulder muscle. She grins with resolution in bringing me and my mount down. I ride further down the road, dismount fast and patting the flank of Nightwish I order him to seek safe shelter amongst trees and bushes. While the dwarf female comes walking towards me I see Alonso fighting off the sneaky human.

"You shall regret this!" I shout at the dwarf who stands two heads shorter than me and fend of her initial blow with the sword I held while I grab my second one. Swinging both sides of her devastating axe—first the blade then stabbing with the spear—she forces me back step by step, slash by slash. All my attacks against her heavy plating proves to be futile, I can't seem to penetrate it. This deadly dance is going to end bad for me, I'm sure I'll run out of strength faster than this tank-dwarf who's intended on crushing me with great force.

"Alonso! Help me!" I yell in despair, but our pirate friend is still in his own struggle with the human not heeding my call. Then a cutting blow hits my arm and I let out a shriek of pain. Blood runs down my arm down to my hand, and from hand to my fingers. But the dwarf will not have pleasure in seeing me bleed much longer for Wägtell—twice the size of the dwarf—comes running to my aid. Not letting her a chance to see what's going to hit her Wägtell simply raises his hammer high above her head and lands it with tremendous power on the steel skullcap. Believe me if I say the dwarves head—which already seems to stand shorter and small out of proportion by the broad pouldrons—literally is driven down her breastplate for several inches with the sound of snapping bones. From her nose and eyes starts to gush blood; she simply falls over like a steel statue brought out of balance. Without a second of delay I rush to Nightwish and find him lying down by some bushes, his snow white chest is covered with his blood. I gasp and heartbroken I sprint towards him. As I kneel down before him I see he's still alive, but it's the first time I see the fear in his eyes. Even a proud and stalwart animal like him seems to fear death like any other.

"Don't die on me!" I sob and with shaky hands I shuffle through my bag in search of a healing potion. My hand bumps into that one large healing potion I took from the half-orcs in Airspur. As fast as I can I uncork the vial and pour the light blue liquid in the mouth of Nightwish doing my best not to spill a single drop.

"Here, drink this," I say hoping he'll understand I'm trying to make him better.  
Secondly I take the magical med kit I brought from Cimbar's medical tent at Airspur—the tent from which we were free to take whatever we needed. I take the jar of healing salve and apply some on the wounds to make them heal even faster.

"There you go," I pat his neck with comfort, "you'll feel better in a few minutes."  
Looking back to the others I find Alonso going through the bags and pockets of both the dead human and dwarf, taking whatever coins or valuable objects they were carrying. Nightwish lifts his head and pushes himself up with his front legs followed by his back legs stretching out to full stand. His wounds have healed rapidly and only vague marks are visible now. With his nose he bumps my arm and reminds me of my own wound, but it's hardly as bad as his were, just a cut in the flesh. I gently climb on top of him.

"You should see this," Yaeri tells us all waving a dirt and blood stained sheet of paper.

"What is it?" Pippa asks.

"Let me quote," Yaeri says, "I—_bloodstain—_have hired you for a—_mudspot—_job, the list hereby given is the group that needs to be taken—_minor blooddrop_—off." Yaeri clears his throat and starts to quote the list of descriptions, "A grim looking male human with weird iron mask, a giant half-orc approximately six feet five, a female elven ranger, a sly halfling, a pirate, a small blond gnome, and a half-orc with bluish skin."

"Oh my," Pippa gasps.

"Well shiver me timbers!" Alonso says cleaning his swords before sheathing them again.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were more bounty hunters out to kill us. We better start to take care of our steps now." I say.  
The others climb on their horse, donkey or doggie, and Pippa is lifted onto my horse by Wägtell. We ride out again leaving the two dead bounty hunters behind us.

We've come to the mines at last, it took longer then expected, even after the long ride to the bridge it still was a respectable distance till we reached these mines. The sun is standing high in the mid afternoon.

"Ho!" I command Nightwish to halt and I descend from the saddle. I walk a few feet forward and bend over to the ground.

"There are tracks here," I inform the others on my findings.

"Well it _is_ a mine, people mine here." Wägtell says.

"Yes but these tracks are fresh, most lead into the mine but this set leads away from it to the forest over there." I point to the different forms of tracks and to the forest. "I suggest we follow the tracks leading into the forest first, I got a good feeling we'll find things that will explain much of these situations."  
I take Nightwish by the reins and slowly walk forward keeping close eyes on the tracks while the others tag along.

The tracks follow a path through the forest close to the river we've been following all day, and eventually lead us to a wooden encampment. Great webs are hanging over different corners of the wooden walls and even greater clusters are woven tightly around huts and small houses. The most remarkable feature is the gigantic cocoon-like construct around the top of the tallest building. Like a giant beehive it stares down at you from it's great height.

"This is a goblin camp," Pippa says with surprise, "or what is left of it."  
I notice now the slightly smaller scale of things, the walls are a bit lower then they should be when made by human craft, as are the two abandoned guard towers.

"What ever's in here killed the goblins and made themselves quite at home."  
Wägtell takes his hammer from his belt and walks carefully on, passed the two empty guard towers, into the encampment. The rest follow closely and ready arms as well. The river runs right through the encampment splicing it in two halves, though it has narrowed down a lot to merely a stream of grey murky water. At the centre is a crude little wooden bridge connecting the two parts.

"Ew, this place gives me the creeps," Pippa squeaks, looking around anxiously to the webs hanging everywhere.

"I agree Pippa, I'm not so fond myself of eight legged freaks." I come to walk a bit closer to her.

"Where to start?" Alonso ponders aloud. "Perhaps with the large beehive thing?"

"If you ask me, we should do it last," I reply, "why not start with the one closest to us?" I point to a hut covered with thick webs.

"I'll go check the other side," says Wägtell and marches towards the little bridge.

"Wait, I'll come with you," Pippa yells and pulls Yaeri's arm to come with her too.

"Shouldn't we stick together?" I question the splitting but none seem to have heard me. Alonso walks to the entrance of the hut while I keep a sharp eye on the beehive, I got a bad feeling about it. Something tells me that one hole in that cocoon wasn't made for nothing.

"Eh, I can't see a bloody thing inside," Alonso shouts from inside the hut. I walk towards the opening and peer inside after Alonso walks back.

"I'd better go look for a torch or something," he says.  
_Hmm, the walls seems alive_, I think when seeing slight movement everywhere.  
_Eek, those walls aren't alive, it's full of bugs!_ I run outside again when seeing that the walls are covered with thousands of giants beetles. Shaking the freight of me I decide to join the others at the other side. From the distance I'm standing, I can tell by Alonso's gestures he's asking Yaeri if he has something to make fire with. To his request Yaeri pulls some items from his backpack and hands them over. Alonso now search around him, starts walking around looking behind dust and rock.

"I'm going to look inside that building if there is a torch or something," I can hear Alonso say when I come closer to the others, and he walks inside the only building that seems clean and untouched by any webs.

"Did you find anything?" Pippa asks me.

"No, that hut is filled with giant beetles." I shiver thinking about the nasty bugs.

"I wonder what's in there," Pippa points to yet another hut, this one was half surrounded with the same cocoon-like stuff that the beehive is made off.

"Probably more bugs," I answer not too eager to check it out. Wägtell is surveying the surroundings and—while he's at it—seeing if he could find anything.

Then comes a shout from Alonso, "Guys!" By the sound of his voice he seems to be in trouble. We rush inside the building he went to search for a torch, we run through the first small chamber to the open door leading to a second room. There stands Alonso with both scimitar and rapier in his hands. A spiders corpse lies in front of him. The sound of incantation draws my attention to a dark robed figure, white thin hair is hanging from his scalp and his eyes were completely drenched in blood. Two spiders now appear in front of Alonso, with a mighty swing he plants his swords in the bodies of both spiders. His scimitar is driven in the right one, his rapier in the left spider. Black blood flows from their fat bodies over the floor around Alonso's black boots.

"Ha, ye'll have to do better than that." He says mocking the dark robed summoner when the rest of us run to different positions in the room. The spider summoner grins, focuses and mutters some words.

"He's the one from Cimbar!" Pippa yells shocked. "He's spider guy who killed the Mayor!"  
Four cocoons then spout from the floor out of nothing, they burst open and more spiders come crawling out. The four spiders block the way to the summoner, three of them turn themselves toward Alonso and the fourth comes crawling to me. Like a whirlwind of blades Alonso hacks through the spiders as if they were of mere butter. Gore flows from their fat hairy bodies to which the summoner looks at Alonso with great irritation.

"It won't end here!" he says between the gnarling of his teeth. He turns and jumps through the window opening behind him. Alonso quickly puts on pursuit. A jab through the head finishes off the spider before me and with much grace I jump through another window opening—the one closest to me. The moment I land I see the mage nearing the little bridge and Alonso making an attempt to throw a javelin at him—which unfortunately only hits dirt. I too put on pursuit of the mage and whilst running I grab my bow and one of the special arrows I brought from Airspur.  
_I'll need at least a hand full of luck to pull off this shot_, I think when trying to aim at the fleeing mage. I fire and the arrow slightly corrects it course and strikes the mage firmly in his back. He staggers forward and drops in the stream. I come to stand next to Alonso and both of us stare and try to find the summoner in the murky water which is rushing past us.

"There!" Alonso yells, and stabs a javelin in the water towards a dark spot. He pulls his javelin back out.

"Ah rats!" He curses, "I seem to have poked his bloody cloak," and shakes the piece of cloth from his javelin. But just when I'm about to turn around I see the mage climbing out of the water, further down the stream.

"He's over there!" I point to redirect Alonso's attention. Laughing madly the spider summoner stands up, and start muttering another spell. A faint tremble surges underneath our feet, followed by another shortly after and a bit harder. The waves of tremor come harder and harder each time one passes, like a giant creature coming closer step by step. The mage is still muttering words while suddenly the beating stops, in that moment of pause a shape flies through the sky and lands on the exact position of the mage.

"WasLief!" Pippa—who has come outside too—shouts from behind me.

"Masters!" WasLief yells and steps away from the crushed mage. "WasLief thirsty!"  
We all run to our big dumb ogre friend, and inspect the crushed mage.

"He be dead alright," Alonso says when I bother to check for a heartbeat. A lot of joints look out of place, I doubt he'd go anywhere if he'd still be alive.

"WasLief wants water," our ogre friend takes a few steps to the stream, plunges his head in and drinks deep of the murky water. Though his greediness leaves him coughing. Pounding his fist on his chest as if suffocating, he keeps coughing and coughing.

"We should do something, Neely!" Pippa panics at the sight of the poor dumb ogre meeting his end on murky water. One last cough and then a shiny object flew out of his mouth onto the ground.

"Well it seemed our mate swallowed a fine looking tiara," Alonso picks up the tiara and holds it high in the light of the afternoon sun. "I'm sure this be worth a lot of money."

"WasLief could you lift me a moment so I can look inside those guard towers?"

"What are you hoping to find there, Pippa?" I question her.

"Don't know," she shrugs, "but can't harm to take a peek, now can it?"  
WasLief lifts Pippa and walks her to one of the guard towers.

I turn myself back to the corpse of the mage, I cut his robe open in the hope to find any signs or something of any fraction he might belong to.

_At this moment, any clue would be welcome, it all doesn't make sense. The mage in wemix village, this… arachnemancer—who appeared on the scenery twice—and then Orriseid. They all had only one thing in common: the blood stained eyes._

A shriek from Pippa's high girlie gnome voice startles me from my pondering.

"Spiders everywhere!" she yells from near the hut—which is half wrapped in webs and cocoon substance—she wanted to go into earlier when we arrived.  
We all come to aid. Pippa stands watching WasLief in panic, countless spiders of all sizes start to crawl up him. Waving his big clumsy arms he smashes spiders, and squashes those who fell on the floor with his big feet. But there are too many, all biting the big ogre.

"Too many! Too difficult!" he shouts and moans in despair.  
His big ogre's body is starting to look all red and swollen by the spiders bites. He begins to falter as his strength weakens. Just as the rest arrives, the big mass tumbles backwards, smacking to the ground creating a shockwave that shakes our legs and even knocks Yaeri from hir feet. With my sword I start to swing at the spiders who triumphantly sit on the body of WasLief. Alonso—who had improvised a torch—chases them away back in their lair and throws it in side. The glow of fire emits from the lair together with the stench of roasting tissue.

"This is all my fault…" Pippa sobs near the slain WasLief; I checked his condition but WasLief was no more.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," I try to comfort her.

"Why can't I just contain my damn curiosity?" she almost screams out in sorrow. "I should just lock myself in a closet…"

"What's done is done," I lay my hand on the gnomes back, "we are in his debt and let us not forget that, nor him."  
Pippa looks at me with eyes full of tears.

"We should get going," Alonso says, "the fire starts to spread rapidly."  
And spreading rapidly it is, the clusters of webbing are passing on fire like oil does. I pat Pippa on the back and urge her to move on. We all halt when we reach the little bridge and with silence we look back to see how the flames leap towards the spot WasLief is lying. And eventually how our dumb but noble ogre friend is consumed by it. Only the sound of the fire and the wind is what fills this moment of last salute.

**

* * *

Into Darkness**

It is at high noon of the next day that we arrive at Astilith's outpost. We decided to clear the mines later, and bring the corpse of the arachnemancer to Astilith now that it's still 'fresh'. Perhaps their wizard could learn more about all this. As soon as we brought out report we take the afternoon off and turn in early. All but two.

"Do you sometimes think about the future?"

"Aye, that happens from time to time," Alonso replies to my question.

"I mean about us."

"Us?"

"Yes, the group, what would happen with us after all this?"  
Alonso scratches his head. We both lay flat on our back staring at the ceiling of this room. The others are vast asleep, or so we think, once in a while a chuckle could be heard from either Pippa or Yaeri.

"I don't know what you mean, lass."

"Well…" I pause. "…You always wanted to buy a ship right?"

"Aye, you got that right."

"You see… perhaps we could… I mean, you could…"  
I sigh.

"Com'on" Alonso pokes me, "speak up lass."

"I was thinking perhaps you could take me along on your ship?"

There is some rustling from Alonso's side but besides that an uncomfortable silence lingers.

"I'm not sure if that's such a great idea, sorry lass." Alonso speaks at last.

I draw another long sigh and try to reposition myself, hoping I could tuck away the uncomfortable or perhaps even embarrassing feeling.

"Really, I'm deeply sorry lass, It's just…"

"Nah, it's okay. I understand."

"…who knows what the sea will wash ashore. For all I know, once this job is over we all go our own way."

"If you say so."

"Hey… sorry if I hurt you, okay?"

"It's okay… I've always been okay."  
The night seems extremely cold today, and these chill featureless walls don't exactly help either. I sigh once more before dosing off.

I wake early with the first rays of light. The rest is still asleep, "eight hours" they say humans need of rest, but my fellows here seem to make a contest of sleeping the longest. And most of the time the little Yaeri is champion, followed by Pippa as second. Those sleepyheads would snore half a day if you'd let them.  
Anyway, I think I'll go spend my lonely morning with Nightwish. It doesn't surprise me to find him quite awake as well, as a matter of fact I can't recall catching him ever asleep. Much like a great leader he wakes over all of us. I spend the morning feeding the animals—it would be cruel to just feed my horse while the other poor animals have to content themselves with watching.

After a sober breakfast we set out to clear the mines as we promised Astilith. Again we follow the river downstream for a long time. I'm taking the lead at the front, Pippa is riding with me again. But then the most unexpected mind-blowing thing happens. Right in our sight Alonso vanished into thin air.

"Ha-ha-" Pippa vocalises a laugh with sarcasm—she had been grumpy for all morning now, something about Yaeri and Wägtell taking a ring from her.

"That's not funny Alonso." She says, but no response comes. Flabbergasted we halt and dismount, walk over to his donkey. Wägtell waves his hand above the saddle.

"He isn't invisible," he concludes.

"Alonso!" Pippa shouts, "come here right now so I can kick your sorry butt!"  
Again no response. Pippa's anger starts to change in worry.

"Do you think something _really_ happened to him."

"I don't know, there is not a single track." I say, "I was hoping he was only joking."

"We got to go search for him," Pippa looked even more troubled now.

"I've already looked for any trace that could tell us where he went to, and I have no idea. It just seems like he disappeared into…"

"Into?"

"…into nothing."

"Lets search the surroundings," Pippa suggested, and so we start. Shouting his name we looked at every tree, behind every bush, underneath every stone, but no Alonso.  
After a long search we return to the mounts.

"I don't understand," Pippa sobs, "where did he go?"

"Lets hope he'll get back as fast as he vanished." I try to comfort Pippa though I know better.  
Wägtell and Yaeri both climb on their mounts.

"Wait! We're not going to leave yet?" Pippa shouts unsettled.

"We've given it our best shot," Wägtell replies.

"No wait," Pippa shouts and a sparkle springs from her eyes. She extends her hands and recites some words I've heard her speak before in the past. With closed eyes she concentrates and extends her hands. A moment later she lowers her arms and opens her eyes again with disappointment.

"I guess there is nothing we can do," she shakes her head.

"Let us just pray we'll see him again soon." I say.

"I think I'll ride Alonso's donkey now," Pippa walks sadly to the donkey, "we can't just leave him here."  
I help her climb on the donkey and I match the stirrups to her size. Once we're all set we move on further, lingering here is of not much use.

We pass the bridge where we previously encountered the bounty hunters and not so much further all of us clearly hear a howl filled with pain.

"What was that?" Pippa asks.

"It sounded like a wolf," I tell. "We should check it out." We turn left from the road and with care we go through the bushes. An open spot lies behind the dense bushes and at the centre of the open spot lies a wolf—though bigger than any wolf I've ever seen—who's being harassed by a mob of goblins. Three of them lie dead with open throats while the others are poking the poor animal to death with sharpened sticks.

"qualme lle, saurarea!" I yell and shoot one of them through the heart. His little goblin fellows jump up from hearing their kin's cry. They start to flee in all directions. Pippa slings a bullet to the one fleeing nearest to her, though even with a direct hit he could get away with his life. I manage to kill a second one but after that, all disappear between the tick bushes surrounding the open place. I jump off my horse and run to the wounded wolf. But this one isn't an ordinary wolf, when I'm wanting to tend his wounds they are already healing with tremendous speed. It reminds me of that troll we had encountered some time ago, though I had no memory about other creatures with such regeneration capacities. Now the wolf's body starts to grow and deform—or better would be transform—because it seems to change it shape to a humanoid form, a humanoid female form to be precise. Instead of a wounded wolf there now lies a young woman. However transformation only appears to have taken place on half her body. While she has taken on the human form her feet remained paws and small features of her wolf form still mark her face. Even several spots of her skin are left covered with fur.

"Are you okay?" I ask, still hunched down. All of us can't help but stare at the feral looking woman. She jumps up and gives a lick on my cheek.

"Just a thanks would do as well," I laugh and dry the saliva of my cheek with the back of my hand. "But I guess you can't speak, can you?"  
She shakes her head and stares at the others.

"It's okay, they are with me."  
I walk to my horse and ready myself to leave. The half-wolf woman comes standing next to me.

"I'm not sure you can keep up with us. Besides, we got some business to take care of."  
But even when we set off the half-wolf woman insists on following us. As soon as we make haste she changes into her full wolf form and travels at great speed, effortlessly matching ours.

We arrive again at the mines and park our horses off the road. The entrance is supported with wooden beams and run on to the inside.

"I don't like going underground," Pippa says with a faltering voice when she sees the darkness beyond the entrance. "And certainly not when I know there's going to be bugs."

"Just stick with me," I say, inviting her again to join me at my side.  
We walk into the mine, past the braced entrance, and come into a room. There is a door on either side and the mine shaft going deeper at the end of this small room. The half-wolf woman sniffles the floor and walks around.

"I think I should make some light," Yaeri speaks uncomfortable with the dim light hanging in the room.

"I need no light," Wägtell shrugs and steps to the door at our left, without any precaution he opens it and stares inside.

"Eh, some small bugs here," he steps backwards from the door opening and grabs for his hammer. Then the half-wolf woman pounces on the spiders and places her sharp fangs in the juicy bodies of the creeping vermin. Black goo is dripping from her teeth as she tears them apart. With much disgust Wägtell stares at the feral behaviour of our companion.

"That room is empty now," Wägtell speaks after peering inside again.

"Could you check the other room too?" Pippa asks.

"Sure." Wägtell walks to the door at the other side.

"Just some tools and stuff here, and dust," he says after taking a good look inside.  
Meanwhile Yaeri walks further on in the tunnel as first with a burning torch. S'he is brave for hir statue, or at least from time to time. Out of the darkness a big spider comes crawling towards hir. Waving the torch and pointing hir short sword Yaeri holds the creep at distance. I notice the spider tries to take a bite from our halfling friend; an arrow would do her good. The spider is brought down easily and Yaeri is safe and sound.

"Hey," I grab Yaeri's attention, "you shouldn't be wandering off alone."

"I know, I was thinking to do a bit of scouting ahead. Besides, there are some amongst us that like to poke around in every room they encounter."

"Hehe," I laugh, "but I would hate to see you dead again."  
As soon as the others have come to stand with us Yaeri walks on deeper into the tunnel. We follow closely.

"The tunnel splits here," Yaeri says waving hir torch to both directions.

"Lets go left," Wägtell say.

"Okay, I'll stay here and guard the right tunnel, so nothing can sneak up on you." Yaeri volunteers.  
The tunnel leads deeper until the light of Yaeri's torch is no longer visible.

"Wait," Pippa says, "I'm going to put on a candle I've been carrying ever since."  
She opens her backpack and draws a candle from it in an eye blink. With some flint and steel she lights it. The very soft candle light reveals only a small area around us, but enough to move on without bumping against anything.

"I see a crude stairway in the distance," Wägtell informs us some time later.

"Oh no, we're going even deeper, now." Pippa shivers.  
Minding our steps we carefully descend the stairs leading to another splitting of the tunnel.

"Who are we now going to leave behind while the others pick a way?" Pippa asks.

"I think we should just split two and two," I suggest. "Pippa and I shall take the left. Wägtell, you go with our friend here to the right."

Wägtell nods and Pippa and I set off to explore the left tunnel. Step by step we go forwards, Pippa with her candle and I with my bow. Just after we lost count of our steps I hear the soft noise of crawling and shuffling.

"I think we should go back," Pippa had clearly heard it too.

"Good idea." And both of us back track our steps to the point where we split with Wägtell.  
But they have no more luck than us, we find them retreating from some giant beetles who're slowly crawling their way to the two.

"We got some bugs here," Wägtell tells us and smashes one with his hammer. Our feral friend is also chewing heartily on the beetles exoskeleton. The beetles look dark and deep purple, two radiant antennae are placed at their head which are softly illuminating the tunnel walls with a green-yellow hue.

"There was something at our end too," explains Pippa, "that's why we headed back."  
Space is getting very tight and the last thing you'd want is a swing from Wägtells hammer, so I consider keeping my eyes on our tunnel just in case something followed us.

"We should set up at the stairs!" Pippa yells trying to bring some order in the chaos.

"No, I can handle it," Wägtell smashes his third beetle. But more keep crawling from around a dark corner, with their glowing antennae marching to us.

"All of you should really go back up the stairs!" Pippa insists, "let me cast a swarm, that will hold them back."

"A what?" I shout from over my shoulder.

"Well it says something about summoning a swarm on this scroll here," and Pippa waves some sheet of paper with odd figures drawn on it.

"A swarm of what?"

"I don't know…"

"Eh…" I say and tap Wägtells shoulder to move back and up the stairs. Wägtell sighs, kicks a beetle and slowly moves back together with the wolf woman.

"Now…" Pippa says and raises the scroll. With the scroll in her left hand and her candle in her right, she speaks the magical words. The scroll is suddenly torn apart and the many shreds fly forward as if caught by gust of wind. Then the shreds start to transform and grow and take shape of bats. The swarm of bats hurls itself at one of the giant beetles and violently tears it apart.

"Go attack the others too, you stupid bats!" Pippa yells angrily, "that one is dead already!" Only a heap of minced meat remained when all the bats fly of into the darkness of the tunnel and leaving Pippa standing at front row with the rest of the beetles.

"No, don't fly away!" she shouts. "That's the lousiest scroll ever!"

"Enough wasting time," Wägtell jumps in front of her and starts smashing beetles once more till all of them lay dead.

"Hey," Pippa says with surprise, "lets use those glowing antennae for light." She takes her sickle and cuts of a pair of one of the dead beetles.

"Look I'm a beetle," she laughs after putting those glowing feelers between her circlet. Suddenly I felt a shiver going through me and then Pippa's candle—which now stood on the floor—died out with another gust of wind. All that was remaining of light were the many antennae of the beetles at the floor. We stare in wonder and hold our breath. Pippa screams and falls back, a giant white spider stands next to her. With her dark legs she comes to hang over Pippa. Wägtell swings his hammer at the monstrosity but as soon as his hammer would impact she vanishes in thin air. I haunch next to Pippa and notice she has a nasty bite at her arm.

"Let me take care of that," I say while checking the wound. I take some of the healing salve and rub some of it on her arm. The half-wolf woman growls and charges down the tunnel Pippa and I invested for short. I get up again and draw my two swords. With loud pounding heart we gaze down the tunnel.  
_That would be the last thing I'd do_, I think questioning the action of our feral friend. The spider popped up again next to Wägtell and misplaces her fangs in his metal armour.

"What in hell's name is that?" Wägtells curses after the eight feet long monster blinked out of existence again.

"I have no idea, but keep yourself ready," I say.  
The giant white spider materialised once more but this time none of us was caught off guard. It was Wägtell who had the opportunity, with a powerful blow he bashes her back. She shifts out of sight again.

"None sneaks up to Wägtell!" he grins and flexes a muscle. But there the horror shows up again, she tries her luck with me now, to no avail. My swords ran through her hide and with a screech she shifts away to appear once again a few feet from Pippa. This time she didn't catch her by surprise, she sent the spider a full salvo of magic missiles.

"Hah!" Pippa mocks the spider, "don't take me for a fool, missy!"

"I wonder how long she will keep trying," I say and as if she heard me she shows up. Wägtell leaps forward and crushes her body between his hammer and the floor, a mighty blow she does not survive. Dark red blood runs out of her white corpse, her purple eyes turn deep black and hollow. Some last spasms in her legs end her existence forever.

"Ew, what a creep," Pippa tries to shake the thoughts off her.

"Yeah, I hope there aren't any more of those." I say

"More?" Pippa stares in deep thought and gasps, "Yaeri!"  
She runs up the stairs, her glowing antennae illuminating a few steps in front of her.

"Wait Pippa," I yell and run after her. She does not stop and keeps running through the dark tunnel. She reaches Yaeri.

"Thank god, you're okay," she sighs relieved and out of breath. Yaeri looks up in surprise when seeing Pippa running towards hir.

"Of course I am," s'he says and smiles, "not a single thing to be found here."

"Well you should know," she starts the tale of the big white spider who phased in and out of existence.

"Pippa, lets go, we don't have time for the whole story, we should get back to the others."

"Well okay," and Pippa turns around.

"Hey Pippa," Yaeri calls after her, "could you bring me a set of those? They look handy." He winks and points to Pippa's glowing feelers.

"And they are pretty too," she smiles back at hir.

After we got together with Wägtell and the half-wolf woman we continue down the tunnels of the mine. Besides two more spiders and a lair of white spider eggs—which Wägtell tramples—these parts of the mine are empty.

"We're done here," Wägtell says, "lets go check the other parts now.

"Let me gather some more of these first," and Pippa cuts off all the glowing feelers of the dead beetles.

"You want some Wägtell?" she asks.

"No," he replies short and walks on.

"What about you?" she offers me a pair too.

"Ah, why not," I reply and accept the pairs of antennas.

"You could braid them in your hair!" Pippa jumps up and claps her hands excited by her own idea.

"Hold on…" I chuckle.  
A minute later I have a pair of antennas braided in my hair, both hanging at a side.

"What do you think?"

"Very pretty," Pippa laughs.

"And very practical," I smile, "now I can keep both hands free at all time."  
Pippa cheers. "Let me put the rest in my backpack."

There is still the tunnel Pippa and I started to investigate—and from which we turned back. The tunnel doesn't lead much further than the point we had gotten to, there is only a turn to the right and just after that a dead end. Though there is something noteworthy lying on the floor there. A yellow stone, translucent like ember, shaped in an irregular form, from which some spots are shiny while others are dull.

"Oh!" Pippa shouts in surprise noticing the stone, "just like the one we got from the mayors office!"

"Mayors office?" I ask Pippa straight forward.

"Euh…" she hesitates, "…there was one in his closet just like this one, but not so raw."  
I do remember the stone in the glass showcase, and I also remember that same closet being empty when we revisited it after his death. The fact she said 'got' makes me somewhat suspicious about it.

"We should go back to Yaeri," she adds quickly, "yes, lets not linger here longer than needed."  
This has been the second time Pippa's behaviour had been out of the ordinary, the quick changing of subject and the nervous acting, much like when I asked her about what was going on when she stood before the Queen. Something tells me this gnome shares the same obsession for shiny stones as dwarves do and I'll better keep an eye on her hands.

Yaeri is still at the same spot s'he had been guarding all the time now.

"Hey!" Pippa greets hir, "I got those glowers for you. How many do you want?"

"You can give me all of them," s'he puts on a broad smile.

"All?"  
Yaeri nods. "I'll stick them up from my backpack."

"Okay…" Pippa says and takes the bunch of antennas from her backpack.

"Thanks," s'he smiles again and s'he carefully places them between every strap and opening of hir backpack. In a while s'he has become a walking light source with over a dozen of glowing feelers sticking out in all directions.

"We still got to check this right tunnel," Wägtell says right after he rolls his eyes, not feeling much for this whole glowing antenna hype. Together with the half-wolf woman he walks into the last tunnel we haven't explored yet.  
To our great surprise—and relieve—that last tunnel isn't also much more than just a small dig site. Some shovels and picks lie on the floor between thick clusters of web, and of which one of the picks had some runes carved in it. Though none of showed any particular interest in it.

"The mines are clear," I say, "perhaps we should head back to Astilith."

"No, I want to investigate this mine more closely, we might have skipped something," Wägtell says and removes a key from his pocket. Questioning we look at him and his key.

"Where did you get that from?" Pippa shouts.

"I found it. And I'm going to search the lock that fits this key." With those words Wägtell walks off deeper into the mine again.

"Be my guest," I tell him, "I'm going to wait outside."  
Pippa and Yaeri follow me as I leave the mine. The half-wolf woman stares confused at Wägtell and then decides to go outside too.

Boredom strikes as time passes and we all wait for Wägtell to return. Yaeri sits against the rocky surface of the mountain face while Pippa does her absolute best in making a conversation with hir. I walk to Nightwish.

"Hey boy," I pat him on the neck, "you must be quite bored as well."  
He looks at me with his dark eyes and lowers his head.

"Yeah, I guessed so."  
With my fingers I comb his manes.

"What would I be without you?"  
He rubs his head to my upper leg.

"Hey, take it easy," I chuckle, "you almost knocked me over."

Nightwish then starts to paw his front legs into the dirt.

"Lets play a little game, shall we? It's very simple, I'll whistle and than you come to me."  
I walk away a few yards and whistle once, whistle twice but Nightwish keeps staring at me, clearly not getting the picture.

"What are you doing?" Pippa asks.

"I thought I'd teach him a little something."

"Oh nice! Is it working?"

"Not really, I'm not sure how to do it."  
Wägtell comes back out of the mine entrance.

"Nothing…" he shakes his head still holding that key.

"Oh well," Pippa walks to him and smiles, "probably a lost key to nothing."

"Lets go back to Astilith," I say and walk to Nightwish.

"I could use a bath," Pippa sighs.

"I doubt they have something like that," I laugh.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure, have you smelled those men? Not quite my taste."  
I look around and see all of them mounted and ready to leave. Even the half-wolf woman—still in her full wolf form—is standing by on her four paws.  
We set off on the road back to Astilith.

The sun casts her rays low underneath the leafy roof of the forest when we reach the outpost. Though somehow this evening feels a lot warmer than all the other evenings. There is no chill breath of night blowing away the last warmth. This evening is different.

One of the guards leaves—as usual—his post and raises his hand. We halt and dismount. Then the horses get uneasy as the half-wolf woman starts to growl at the nearing guard. Before any of us could say anything she charges him, showing bare teeth she runs like a rabies possessed animal.

"No!" I shout, "don't attack him!"  
The guard draws his sword while three of the other guards come running to his aid.

I grab my bow and run forward into close range of the half-wolf woman.

"Don't make me shoot you," I yell but she doesn't heed my words. I fire a warning shot into the ground near her paws.

"Kill them!" the guards shout.

"Wait!" Pippa comes running in, "it's all a misunderstanding!"  
With a loud roar Wägtell runs to the guards, "we will not be killed! Not by you!"

"Wägtell stop!" I command, "One more step and I will shoot you where you stand!"

"You would not dare!" his loud voice sounds like thunder.

"Then try me!"  
Meanwhile the guards are fending off the half-wolf woman.

"Meskar cha tesh demar!" Pippa yells on top of her lunges. One of the four guards now drops on the floor in a deep sleep

"By Garl!" Pippa yells shocked, "I meant the wolf, not the guard!"  
Two mages come running out of the rune carved entrance. I raise my bow and aim my arrow to the head of Wägtell.

"You leave me no choice Wägtell, you're endangering our assignment!"  
Wägtells turns and with tremendous power he smashes his hammer to the ground.

"Fine!" he roars.  
The mages cast several spells and the half-wolf woman drops to the ground. With raised swords the guards surround us.

"You better have a good explanation for this," one of them says. Pippa drops to her knees and hides her face in her hands.


End file.
